If That's What it Takes
by Cehsja
Summary: Edited and Reposted: Lester is tired of nobody doing any work, and he thinks thing might improve if he plays the matchmaker. CH1: Lester, CH2: Conby, CH3 Sarah/Danny, CH4: Lester, CH5: Jecker, CH6: Jecker
1. Absolutely No Shakespeare (Lester)

**Another Edit and Repost of an old story that needed editing and reposting :p Enjoy!**

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><p>Lester frowned as he sat in his office. It seemed like lately nothing was getting done, and he thought he knew why. His entire staff, minus Becker, was in love and they were all too cowardly to admit it.<p>

Only ten minutes ago he had walked past the ADD and found that Connor was doing nothing but hitting the space bar over and over, pretending to work but clearly distracted, more than likely by Abby who was leaning close over his shoulder watching him, rather than the computer, and telling him how brilliant he was. The two of them were inseparable, and yet they had put up their own invisible boundaries and walls that neither dared to cross. The tension between them was, quite frankly, rather annoying.

And then there was Sarah and Danny. Unlike Abby and Connor, they weren't scared of crossing any lines. In fact, they blatantly ignored every boundary that _should_ be in place between two co-workers, or even friends. They were always flirting with each other, holding hands, and making suggestive comments to one another. Danny often brought her roses in the morning and said they were for "His Beautiful." The problem was that they treated the entire thing like a joke and they weren't _actually_ going out. Yet they both wished for it to be real; Lester could tell by the way they stared after each other longingly when the other wasn't looking.

But now the final straw had been added to the pile and Lester was the camel with the broken back, figuratively speaking. Sarah had just left Lester's office after handing him some reports and, inadvertently, left his door open on her way out, meaning that Lester had to either deal with the surrounding noise, or get up and close it himself. He was still debating which was worse when he noticed that Sarah hadn't gone anywhere. She was standing just outside his office windows, peering over the railing to the Operations room below, where Lester was sure Danny was probably working. Suddenly she called down to him over the ledge, "Oh Danny-o, oh Danny-o. Wherefore art thou, Danny-o?" Lester rolled his eyes at the corniness.

Danny immediately joined into the game and attempted to scale the ramp up to the concourse from the wrong side of the railing, only to be startled (along with Lester) when Connor came _barging_ into the Operations room hollering out that Nancy was missing. Danny fell onto his back (fortunately he hadn't gotten high enough to be hurt yet) and Sarah rushed to his side but, for once, Danny didn't pay her any heed as he started shouting for Becker to come help him kill Connor.

The next thing Lester knew was that Becker was aiming a tranquilizer gun at Abby, who stood between Becker and Connor, and Sarah and Danny were both cheering Becker on, and Nancy was in Lester's office chewing through one of his spare ties.

_"That's enough!"_ Lester bellowed through the ARC. "It is _not_ recess, and this is _not _a playground! Everyone get _back _to work, _now!_ And for Pete's sake would somebody come and get this diictodon!"

They group scattered quickly and went back to pretending to work, but Lester noticed, unhappily, that still nothing was getting done and he decided once and for all that the best solution to his problem would be to get his love stuck staff members together, fast.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Lester called everyone in his office together for a quick meeting. Once they were assembled, he looked at Becker. "I have, uh, certain jobs that need to be taken care of this weekend that will likely pull these four," he nodded toward his couples-to-be, "Out of the line of duty. Are you able to hold down the fort on your own?"<p>

The group exchanged puzzled looks, but Becker nodded, "I've got my men; we're fine."

"Good Man, I was hoping you'd say that. Might even be able to swing you a bonus on your next pay cheque. I'll put in a word for you to the minister. Now, off you go while I give these guys their missions."

Becker left the room as Connor exclaimed, "Wait, we get more work and he gets more pay? That don't seem fair."

"He's the only one that does any work in the first place," Lester retorted. "Now, Connor, let's start with you. I want to talk to you about your field reports. I've noticed that you often compare future creatures to Tolkien characters?"

Connor glared at the others when a few snickers went up around the room, but then turned his attention back to Lester, becoming animated, "Oh _yes!_ That camouflage beast totally looked like how I imagined Gollum when I read the Hobbit and the future predators too actually, well maybe he was a mixture, and those mers looked a bit like orcs, don'tcha think?"

Lester rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't know, Connor, I don't know what an orc looks like. What I was wondering is, do you think it was possible that Tolkien had access to a future anomaly?"

Connor hesitated and then shrugged, "I dunno. It'd be pretty far-fetched, I admit."

"Well, perhaps there are other similarities we are missing. I'm sending you to a Lord of the Rings Convention this weekend and I want you to take notes on anything interesting you might observe."

Connor's face lit up with a huge grin, "_Really?_ I get to go to the convention? I've been pining about it for months, but Abby wouldn't loan me the money!"

Lester shrugged, "Well, now you're going, and being paid to go I might add, so please don't make a fool out of yourself. I understand this is a costume thing? You'd better go shopping this afternoon and take Abby with you, I'm sending her too. You might wanna help her find something appropriate to wear."

Abby groaned, "I have to go too?"

"Yes, who else is going to keep him in line? But I understand that it will be rather dreary for you, so I've arranged for you and Connor to have a nice dinner right after the convention lets out on Saturday. It's a wonderfully elegant place, you'll enjoy it, and the ARC will even pay for your champagne. Then I've put you guys up in a beautiful six star luxurious hotel for the night so you can get a good nights sleep before… well before you attend day two of the convention, but don't worry, Saturday is only a half day. Oh, and I'm sorry but, being the nicest hotel in London, there was only one room available so you'll have to share. Can't be helped, but I figured you guys live together anyway and wouldn't mind. Besides, Connor will probably be too excited to sleep."

Abby shrugged. "I suppose it'll be alright," she said with fake reservation, but actually she was getting excited about it. It sounded like a lovely evening after all. She glanced at Connor who was standing frozen, mouth wide open.

"Any objections, Connor?" Lester asked.

"So my uh, job then," Connor managed, finding his voice again, "Is to go to the Lord of the Rings convention with Abby, who will be dressed like a beautiful elf, and then take Abby out for a posh dinner and then spend the night with her, and then go back to the Lord of the Rings convention while she dresses like an elf again, and you're going to _pay _me for this?"

"Well, doesn't have to be an elf," Lester said. "Whatever you decide you want her in."

"Oh, it'll be an elf," Connor replied with a grin.

"So no objections then?"

Connor wiped the grin from his face and nodded seriously, "None at all, Sir. I guess we'd better be off then if you don't need anything else, it might take awhile to find a good costume after all."

Lester nodded and waved them both from the room, ignoring the excited, "Whoop" that Connor let out before the door had closed. He turned to Sarah and Danny as soon as they were gone and found Danny howling with laughter.

"Thank-you," Danny said, "For not sending _me_ to be Connor's babysitter."

"Although the dinner may have been nice," Sarah countered.

Danny looked at her playfully, "Only if it was with you, my Doll."

Lester rolled his eyes, "Okay, fine, dinner for you both too, after you do your job. There's a Government run Dance and Social tomorrow night that everyone is supposed to send representatives too. I assume it'll be boring as hell, so I have politely declined their invitation myself and told them I would be sending others in my place: meaning you two."

"Of course," Danny groaned. "It's almost as bad as Connor's job."

"No, it's _not_," Sarah concluded, "You'll get to dance with me."

Danny's face lit up and he grinned at her, "Well you_ do_ make a good case."

"Somehow," Lester continued, "I felt that you'd represent the ARC itself better than our Connor Temple could, but please, _please,_ while you are there, try not to say too much about our work. If you can avoid talking to people and answering their questions, do so, even if that means you both dance the entire night with each other. Yes, I think that'd be best, just stick to yourselves. There will be alcohol of course, and I understand if you need a few drinks to make it through the dreary evening, but please, please, please behave yourselves and _absolutely no Shakespeare._"

"Very funny," Danny groaned, "But you say there'll be drinks? Night might be alright after all."

"Last thing I need is to be down some manpower because you two get yourselves into an accident and I know you'll need the booze, so I've arranged for you both to stay the night at the hotel where the function is taking place. There's a nice restaurant in there so I'll arrange for you to have your dinner there late as well since it'll be mostly light snacks and finger food at the Social. I've booked a room for you on the top floor and I've heard it's got a lovely view."

Danny raised his eyebrows, "A room, as in, just one? Don't tell me this hotel was booked solid too?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Danny," Lester retorted. "I'm already paying for you to go out drinking and dancing and to dinner. Do you really think I'm going to splurge on a second room too? This is an expensive hotel, you know. You're just going to have to deal with it."

Danny rolled his eyes and then turned to Sarah, "What do you think Sarah, can you handle a whole night with me?"

Sarah raised an eyebrow, "Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe, Baby."

"I can take anything you throw my way, Love."

"Knock it off, _both_ of you," Lester said, quickly cutting into their conversation before it got too weird. "You'd both better take the rest of the day off to find some proper attire. But please remember, don't get drunk and _no Shakespeare!"_

Danny grinned and saluted as he walked out the door quoting over his shoulder as he went, "O Farewell – to the little good you bear me. Farewell? A long farewell to all my greatness."

Lester rolled his eyes and hoped that his plan would work, and that Danny wouldn't make the ARC look too bad in the process.


	2. Not Always Make Believe (ConnorAbby)

Abby hummed happily as she changed into the elegant white elf costume that Connor had insisted she wear. Normally these conventions weren't her cup of tea, but the fact that Connor had been just as excited about the nice dinner with her as he was about the convention made her heart melt. She was actually looking forward to this weekend now, if just to see the happy grin on Connor's face as he ran around looking at everything. He'd already told her it was the best weekend of his life, and it hadn't technically started yet.

Abby's plans for the weekend were simply to make sure it was as good as, maybe even better than, he expected. She knew that Connor had been in love with her for years, and she'd pushed him away and set up so many barriers between them, but she the thought that maybe, just maybe, in a new fantasy setting, with costumes, and maybe a drink or two inside her, she'd finally be brave enough to let him know she felt the same.

She stepped out of her room and heard Connor gasp when he saw her. She hadn't actually let him see the costume on her in the store, having stayed in the changing room after making sure it fit, and she knew he'd been quite disappointed then. The elf costume consisted of a long shimmering white dress that almost looked silver at times when she moved. The long sleeves tapered out elegantly from the elbows onward. There was also a long silver hooded cape that fastened with a leaf-shaped brooch and had leaf-shaped embroidery running along the hem. The silver and glass necklace she wore hadn't been part of the costume, it was something Connor had given her for her birthday the year before, but she'd thought it went well with the costume.

Connor had also insisted that all elves had long hair and, after awhile, Abby had given in and donned a long wig. She'd settled on a black one, just to be different than usual, and she was pleased to find that it made her blue eyes stand out even more. Connor had once said he liked her eyes, so she used a bit of silver glitter on her eyelids to increase the effect and placed a dainty circular crown that was also silver in her hair. She'd chosen a slightly bolder shade of lip gloss than she'd normally wear to match the dark hair, one that had some shimmer to it. The only thing she'd absolutely refused to wear was the pointed ears that Connor had tried to push on her. They were incredibly uncomfortable and the long wig was covering her ears anyway, so she really didn't see the point.

"Wow," Connor said when he saw her, standing up and finding his voice, "Abby you look…" he hesitated a bit and looked at her shyly, "You look breathtaking."

Abby knew he was being bolder than usual with that compliment, but she grinned and let him get away with it. Connor himself was dressed as Frodo, mainly because he thought the costume worked great around the ring he always wore around his neck. Abby was sure their costumes didn't match each other at all, but Connor insisted it was fine. "Anyway," he'd stated, "It's not like we're going there as a couple."

"True," Abby agreed, but then thought to herself, '_But hopefully we'll be leaving as one.'_

* * *

><p>As they stepped through the doors of the hall where the convention was being held, Abby realised there were a lot of other elves around too. She stared at the different intricate costumes in amazement. She wasn't certain, but she thought a few of them were decorated with real diamonds or emeralds and she wondered what they cost. It had been expensive enough to come to this event and they'd never have come if Lester hadn't paid for it.<p>

"Abby?" Connor said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. Abby looked at him and he grinned at her. "You're the prettiest elf here. You're even prettier than Luthien Tinuviel herself."

Abby hadn't the foggiest who Luthien Tinuviel was, but she did see the hope in Connor's eyes that she wouldn't lecture him for the compliment and suddenly she wondered if Connor had been hoping for the same outcome of this weekend as she was. Then again, sometimes she thought Connor woke up each morning hoping she'd change her mind about him that day. She gave him a smile, "Thanks, Con, and you're pretty handsome, for a hobbit."

Connor grinned and then spoke quickly and impulsively, "Abby, we don't actually know anyone here, so you don't have your reputation to worry about and all and I don't wanna look like a total loser, so just maybe you'd pretend to be my girlfriend?"

Abby laughed, "Con, there is no way you could come across as a loser when everyone here is as excited about The Lord of the Rings as you are."

"I s'pose," Connor sighed, looking disappointed.

Abby hesitated and then shrugged, "I didn't say I wouldn't do it, Con. I just don't see the point."

Connor's eyes lit up, "But you'll do it anyway?"

Abby nodded, "Yeah, why not?"

The rest of Connor's face lit up too, "And I could hold your hand?"

"If you like."

"And put my arm around you?"

"If you like."

Connor hesitated and then gave Abby a pleading look, "And give you kisses?"

Abby faked an exasperated sigh, but honestly she was rather amused, "Yes, Connor, whatever."

Connor stared at her suspiciously, "Are you sure you're Abby in that costume?"

Abby couldn't help but to drop the irritated façade and chuckle, "It's me: Abby the Elf."

Connor laughed too, "Abby the Elf is much more agreeable than Abby the Scary Kickboxer."

"I'm not scary!"

"You are sometimes, Abby!" Connor protested.

Abby frowned a bit, not liking that he thought that, and then suddenly his earlier words really hit her. "Connor, what did you mean when you said my reputation wouldn't be ruined?"

Connor shrugged, "Well, they don't know you, Abby, so you don't _have _a reputation here, not to mention you're in costume anyway."

"Okay, but Con, you know I'm not embarrassed by you, right? I wouldn't actually care if people thought I was dating you even if they _did_ know us."

Connor stared at her, perplexed, "But Abby, you always correct them so harshly when they think we are dating."

Abby smiled, "Only because we're not. But it's not about my reputation. You're the best guy I know and I'm proud to be seen with you. I actually like it when they think that, sometimes, I just don't like to lie to them. I'm proud of you, Connor."

"Oh," Connor said, taking this information in with a surprised grin. Then, to Abby's surprise, he impulsively leaned forward and gave her a quick peck on the lips before grabbing her hand and dragging her over to the nearest display table.

* * *

><p>Connor hadn't been able to believe his eyes when he'd first seen Abby in her get up. She was <em>absolutely<em> stunning. Somehow her dark wig made her eyes stand out even more, or maybe that was the sparkles.

Everything was going wonderfully until they actually got to the convention, and then he had suddenly felt a bit worried. It was obvious that Abby was the prettiest woman at the convention and compared to the men, there weren't really that many women to begin with. He suddenly worried that someone might try to pick her up, so to speak. And so he'd blurted out the question about pretending to date and winced inwardly as he did; Abby'd _never_ go for that.

Except, amazingly enough, she had, and the thought Abby _even pretending_ to date him was enough to put Connor's already good mood over the top and make him feel just a little bit less like the geeky loser he was sure she usually saw him as. He knew he was pressing his luck when he asked if he could kiss her, but hey, he was on a roll and she was in the most agreeable of moods.

He saw the exasperation in her face and cringed, expecting her to take back the entire thing, but then she'd just agreed that yes, he was allowed. Still, he didn't think he'd get up the nerve to actually do so until she started saying a bunch of nice things about him and then he'd summoned up all his courage and gone for it, even if it was over way too fast. He saw that she was as surprised as he was that he'd actually done it and, despite the fact that she'd given him permission a moment ago, he was expecting a lecture. After all, no one had actually been watching them so it wasn't really necessary for their little game of pretend. He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her over to a table full of chain mail, trying to divert her attention before she told him he couldn't ever do that again. He was pretty sure that she could probably feel his heartbeat through their joined palms.

He took a deep breath and finally got up the nerve to glance at her face and, to his surprise, she looked more amused than annoyed with him. When she caught him looking at her, she gave a little chuckle and repositioned her hand so that her fingers were intertwined with his. Connor caught his breath and did his best to act like it was no big deal, that it really was just as pretend to him as it obviously was to Abby, but he couldn't deny how much he wished it was real.

"Abby, look!" Connor said, trying to distract himself now, as much as her, "Did you know they made all the chain mail in the Lord of the Rings by hand, linking each ring on, piece by piece?"

Abby burst out laughing, "Connor, of course I didn't know that! Should I be concerned that _you_ do?"

"Special features on the extended DVD, Abs. You should watch them with me someday."

Abby groaned, "Con, let's not forget I'm still Abby. I am never gonna be excited about chain mail."

"Aww c'mon, Abby, it could protect against dinosaur attacks you know. Maybe I'll put that in my notes to Lester. We should all wear chain mail."

"Please don't."

Connor grinned and tugged at her hand, pulling her to the other side of the table, "Look Abby, this one is mithril: silver. It's light as a feather, and harder than a dracorex's scales, and even looks pretty."

Abby ran her fingers over the silver material, "It does look beautiful, Con, but there is no way this thing would be of any protection and I swear this is painted aluminium, not silver."

Connor looked at it, carefully, and frowned disappointedly, "It was brilliant in the movie."

"It's a prop, Con. You have to learn to decipher make believe from reality. This would do nothing in a creature attack."

"Right," Connor said, looking down at their joined hands and unintentionally reminding himself that his relationship with Abby wasn't real either.

Abby stared at him, "Con, what's wrong? It's just a stupid shirt of rings. You look way too upset about this."

"It's not the shirt, Abs," he said looking up at her. "It's just that, you're right, everything I love always turns out to be make believe."

Abby saw the way he looked at her and understood what he was referring to, but pretended she didn't. She wasn't ready quite yet. "That's not true, Con. Dinosaurs are real and so is time travel."

Connor gave her a half-hearted grin, "Yeah, I suppose," he said, "But elves are cooler than dinosaurs."

Abby smiled at him gently, "I beg to differ, but I thought we were talking about mithril chain mail."

Connor blushed, "Well, you know, anything Tolkien really."

Abby kissed his cheek, "C'mon, Con. You're meant to be enjoying yourself, remember? What else do you want to see?"

Connor grinned at the kiss and then glanced around, his eyes lighting up when he saw a doorway with a large sign over it indicating that it lead to The Shire. "In there, Abs!" he said, dragging her towards it. "Please, let's look in here!"

Abby laughed, "You don't have to beg, Connor. We'll look at whatever you want to as long as we aren't late for our dinner reservations at seven, yeah?"

Connor was already through the door though, with Abby in tow, so it hadn't really mattered what she'd responded.

* * *

><p>"Wow, this is amazing!" Connor said. Even Abby had to agree. It was as though they had stepped through an anomaly into The Shire itself. There was a dirt path to walk along and hills of turf. Sign posts pointed toward Bag End and The Party Tree. Connor was already walking along the trail toward it. Abby noticed that, even though they were indoors, a large canvas had been strung across the ceiling and projections were being made to shine blue sky and moving clouds across it, giving them the impression they were outdoors. The fans causing the air to circulate through the room and a nature CD that was playing added to the effect.<p>

"This is actually _really_ cool, Con. I can't believe how much work they've done."

Connor grinned at her, truly happy that she was enjoying herself too. "It's awesome," he said, stopping to read a sign post. "Abby, look! The Green Dragon is open!"

"Green Dragon?" Abby questioned.

"The local pub for Shirefolk. Maybe after we see Bag End we could get a drink."

Abby chuckled, "Now this is my kind of convention."

* * *

><p>The line up to actually get in to Bag End was quite long as they only let a few people in at a time, but it moved quickly. Abby noticed that although Connor was still holding her hand, he made no effort to actually talk to anyone else there, let alone tell them his relationship status with her. Instead he rambled on to her about all the things he hoped to see inside the Hobbit Hole and why they were so significant. She asked him the occasional question to show she was listening to him, but if she were honest, she was more entertained by the rambling itself than the subject matter. He'd been extremely excited to see a sign out front that read 'No Admittance, Except on Party Business' and said that he was sure it meant their wait was almost over.<p>

Bag End itself seemed to live up to Connor's expectations, more or less. Connor excitedly pointed out every little thing, from the stack of dishes in the sink to the intricate carvings in the wooden fire place. Still, she noticed a slight flicker of sadness in his eyes when he saw a table with a dagger upon it and a plaque in front of it saying that the dagger was called "Sting."

"Con, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he lied, giving her a grin, "Only I'm about ready for that drink now, yeah? How about we head to the Green Dragon?"

Abby nodded and he led her back out of the Hobbit Hole and to the make-shift pub set up just before the Shire's exit. There was another line up here, and when it was their turn they hopped up onto a set of stools and a man dressed as a hobbit slid a small glass of ale to each of them across the dark wooden counter top and offered them each a friendly grin before moving away to serve some other customers. Abby took a sip of hers and then turned to Connor, "Con, this is Hobbit Land, yeah? We should get some photos of you in your Frodo costume here. It'd look pretty neat."

Connor grinned his agreement and Abby pulled her mobile out of a hidden pocket in her silver cape and took a few of him at the pub.

"And how about one of the happy couple together?" asked the bartender, coming back.

Abby laughed, "I don't think my costume quite fits into the setting. I'm an elf."

Connor shook his head vehemently and snatched the mobile from her hand, giving it over to the bartender. "Please," he said to the man, "We'd love that."

Abby chuckled and leaned sideways toward Connor, still facing the camera and posing with her half-full Hobbit-sized glass of ale. Connor kept his eyes on the camera also, but turned his face toward Abby, kissing her cheek for the photo, and Abby's face lit up when he did so.

"Aww, that's perfect," said the barman, snapping the photo and returning the mobile.

"Thanks!" Abby said with a grin, but the bartender had already moved off again. She hit a few buttons so she could view the photo and smiled when it came up on the screen. They both looked quite happy in it.

"Aww," she said to Connor who was leaning close over her shoulder to see it too. "We're so cute together."

Connor looked at her in surprise, but agreed readily. "Yeah, we're just a smashing couple, ain't we?" he asked, expecting to be reminded that they weren't really a couple, but instead she only nodded and smiled.

"C'mon, Con," she said, downing the rest of her drink, "Others are waiting for our seats. Let's go get some more hobbity photos of you and then we'll move onto something else."

"Only, I don't think 'hobbity' is a real word, Abs." Connor said, chugging the rest of his drink as well before standing up and offering his hand to her.

Abby rolled her eyes at him as she took it and hopped down from her stool. "I'm not entirely certain 'hobbit' is a real word either, Con. Where do you want photos?"

Connor led her back through the Shire, getting her to take photos in front of the Party Tree and a few other places. He was tempted to go back through Bag End again to get some, but Abby reminded him that they might not have time to see everything if they waited in line again and Connor decided to move on after making Abby promise they'd come back later if there was time.

Then they headed off to a new room that was called Lothlorien and Connor pulled out his own mobile. "This is Elven land, Abby. It's my turn to get photos of you."

Abby laughed, "Only I don't care so much, Con, if I have elf photos of myself or not."

Connor shook his head, "I want them, Abs. You will pose for me, won't you?"

Abby nodded, "Okay, but you have to promise to delete any that I don't like."

"Deal," Connor agreed.

Abby followed him through the room that had been beautifully decorated as a golden-leaved forest at night. The ceiling canvas here shone with sparkling stars and many of the trees had platforms high upon them. Connor got Abby to pose in front of an extremely large tree that he called a mellyrn.

After that they went to see what Connor referred to as 'Galadriel's Mirror' and what Abby called 'A birdbath.' It was filled with water and had some images projected inside of different movie stills. Connor had seemed excited when they waited in line to look into it, but after staring at it for a few seconds, Abby noticed the small sad flicker in his eyes again. She squeezed his hand and, to her surprise, he looked even sadder.

"C'mon, Con," Abby said softly, knowing he wouldn't tell her what was bothering him, "Let's look at something else, yeah?"

Connor nodded and his smile came back. "Sure, Abs. We can go back to the lobby and see some of the table displays."

"Aren't there any more rooms like these?"

Connor hesitated and Abby suddenly got the feeling that he didn't quite want to answer that, but then he did. "Well, there's three more according to the brochures I looked at ahead of time. There should be Rohan, Mordor and The Paths of the Dead…"

"But…?" Abby encouraged him.

"But they take longer to go through and there's an 11:00 showing of the Fellowship of the Ring, extended version, in the theatre that I _really _want to go to. Please!"

Abby groaned, "Connor, you've seen the movies many times over!"

"Yes, but I've never seen the extended ones on a big screen. Please, Abby!"

"Ones? They won't have all three, surely. We won't have time!"

Connor became animated, "Oh, but Abby, I've got it all worked out. We'll go look at the lobby displays until 11:00. The movie will go until 2:30 and then we have time to see the rest of the rooms before 6:00. Then we can leave to go get ready for our dinner, but they'll have the second movie starting at 6:00 tomorrow morning and the third will be at 10:00. We could be out of here by 2:30 tomorrow, Abs. Please!"

Abby stared at him as though he had grown a second head. "You want me to get up tomorrow morning to watch The Two Towers at 6:00?"

Connor gave her a puppy dog pout and Abby sighed, giving in because she never could resist that look. "Okay, Con, but if I fall asleep half way through, I'm using _you _as a pillow."

"Yep," Connor agreed, wondering if that was supposed to sound like a punishment or a reward.

* * *

><p>Connor dragged Abby around, showing her important swords and costumes and factual posters about characters and creatures. At one point Abby leaned close to him and whispered, "Shouldn't you be taking notes for Lester?"<p>

Connor shook his head, "And let go of me pretend girlfriend's hand? Never. Besides, Abby, I already know everything about Tolkien's creatures. I just didn't tell that to Lester or he might not have let us come here. I'll write him some notes later."

Abby chuckled and pulled her hand from his. "You gotta let go anyway, Con. I'm gonna take a toilet break before the movie starts."

Connor nodded and looked around, "That way," he said pointing, "I'd better do the same."

* * *

><p>Five minutes later Abby emerged and found that Connor wasn't back yet. She smiled to herself, thinking that this was the first event she'd been to where the ladies' loo line up was probably considerably shorter than the one for the men's. While she waited for him, she headed over to the nearest display table and grinned when she found it to feature a large book of phrases translated into the Elvish language called Sindarin. She quickly scanned the book until she found what she was looking for. <em>I love you: Ge Mellon. <em>She grinned and committed it to memory thinking that, if the weekend went as she hoped, she might get the chance to use it. She wasn't sure how to pronounce it, but she was sure Connor would appreciate the effort.

She closed the book again and moved over to another table before Connor could see what she'd been reading. The new table featured a special fantasy breed of horse called the _mearas _and Abby was still reading the poster when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, startled, and found Connor grinning at her.

"Ready for the movie?" he asked, draping his arm around her waist.

Abby nodded and let him escort her into the theatre.

* * *

><p>Connor couldn't wipe the smile from his face as he crossed the parking lot to Abby's car, her hand still resting inside his even though there was no one around outside. To be honest, he'd mostly expected Abby to complain the entire day about having to spend her weekend at the convention, but instead she'd seemed eager to let him tell her all about everything they saw and take photos with him, including quite a few of them together in the Rohan Room. She'd been particularly fond of that room because of the horses. She'd also held his hand nearly the entire day (a little too tightly perhaps when they'd walked through the haunted-like caves called the Paths of the Dead, but she'd denied being scared so Connor had too, even if he knew that they both knew that they both were.)<p>

Now they were heading out to check into their hotel, get changed, and then go out for dinner. "Abby," Connor said as he buckled himself into the passenger seat of her small navy and white Mini.

"What?"

"Thanks, for having fun with me."

Abby laughed, "Anytime, Con, especially when Lester's gonna pay me to do so." Immediately she wished she hadn't said that last part as the sad look filled Connor's eyes again.

"Yeah," he muttered, " 'Cuz you wouldn't have normally done something like this with me. You just pretended to have fun but don't worry, Abs, I know really you're too cool for the convention. It's just pretend, like the mithril chain mail, and Sting doesn't really light up blue and Galadriel's Mirror doesn't really show you the past and future, and you're not really me girlfriend. The whole day's been pretend, but it's still fun. I like the pretend stuff."

Abby stared at him for a moment, wondering how to respond, but then she silently started up the car. She'd tell him. She'd tell him that she didn't want the relationship to be a pretend one anymore than he did, and she was suddenly sure that's what'd been bothering him all day, but she'd wait until after she'd gotten changed at the hotel because she wanted it to come from the real Abby and not Abby the Agreeable Elf. No need to confuse him any more. She turned to him suddenly with a grin, "Well, anyway, Connor, you don't need some stupid birdbath to see the past and future. Anomalies work just as well, yeah? And if that's what that mirror is supposed to do, you'd best put that in your notes to Lester too."

Connor chuckled, relieved to let her cheer him up and change the subject that he wished he hadn't brought up.

* * *

><p>They checked into their hotel and found themselves in a room on the top floor. It really was a lovely room. Most of the furnishings were white and tan, but the trimmings were gold, dark brown, light pink, and pale blue. There were pink roses on the nightstand, robes in the bathroom, and mints on the pillows.<p>

Abby tossed her keys onto the bed and nodded toward Connor. "I'm gonna go get changed." She grabbed her duffel bag of clothes and headed to the washroom, ignoring Connor's request that they just go out in their costumes.

When she emerged again, she was pleased to find that Connor had dressed too and was no longer looking like a hobbit. Actually, she thought to herself, he looked really good. He was laying on the bed watching the TV, and was dressed in khaki dress pants and a white dress shirt that he'd left untucked. He'd even donned a light blue tie. His hair was a mess, but she liked it like that.

"Connor," she said, drawing his attention away from the screen and onto herself, "You look great! Very dashing. I'll have the handsomest date in the restaurant."

Connor stared at her, shocked into silence for a moment by both the compliment and the word 'date'. It took him a moment to recover and then he grinned, "Thanks, Abs! You look really pretty too. I mean, Elven Abby is gorgeous, but real Abby is even prettier, yeah?"

Abby smiled brightly. She'd left on her silver sparkly eye shadow, but the costume was gone, as was the itchy wig, and she now wore a flirty light blue spaghetti-strapped sundress that fell just above her knees. There were little pink and white rosebuds printed on the skirt portion and she wore light blue heels and carried a small white purse to tie the outfit together.

"Thanks. Are you ready?" she asked him, reaching for her keys.

Connor nodded and flipped off the TV before jumping to his feet. "Ready," he said eagerly.

Abby saw him hesitate beside her and she knew what he was worrying about. "Con, it's okay," she said, slipping her hand into his and leading him out of the room, "You can be my boyfriend for the dinner too."

Connor's face lit up as he squeezed her hand tightly. "That's brilliant, Abs, because I was just about to say that if this place is as nice as Lester says it is, it'd look so much cooler to be there on a proper date."

Abby shook her head, amusement evident in her eyes. "Connor, I doubt anyone would notice the difference if we were there as friends or on a date, and if they did, no one would care."

Connor looked puzzled and she saw the question forming in his face, but they were already to the car before he finally dared to ask it. "Abby, if you think that no one would know the difference, why are you letting me pretend I'm your boyfriend?"

"Because you want to," she answered simply.

Connor felt just as confused as before and wondered what else he could get away with doing just because he 'wanted to'. He took a deep breath and asked her quickly as Abby started the car, "Abby, next weekend there's a dinosaur exhibit at the science museum. Do you want to go with me?"

Abby groaned a bit, "Connor, don't you get enough dinosaurs at work? Anyway, I bet there's nothing in that exhibit you don't know already. They probably use _your _database for their facts!"

Connor smiled a bit proudly, but continued, "Yeah, but Abs, you never know, we could learn something new and very useful. If not, we can have fun making fun of everything they get wrong about the creatures."

Abby smiled, "I suppose it _could _be informative. We should tell Lester to send the entire team so we don't have to pay."

Connor frowned and blushed, "Only, I meant for just me and you to go, Abby. You know, to spend time together because I had fun with you today." He looked at her hopefully.

"You mean like a proper date," Abby half-stated, half-questioned.

"Yeah," Connor whispered, barely daring to breathe and wondering why he'd thought that this was such a good idea a moment ago.

Abby bit her lip, feeling a bit conflicted. On one hand, she loved that he'd finally asked and she wasn't about to say no to a date with Connor. On the other hand, something like this, it probably really would be a good idea for the full team to be there and she didn't _really _want their first proper date to be at a dinosaur exhibit. She wanted something more romantic. She supposed she could count the dinner they were on their way to as the _first _date, but Connor wasn't and they were being paid to be there, so she wasn't sure. She was about to tell him that she'd go out with him somewhere else, when suddenly he interrupted her thoughts and, to her surprise, he sounded angry.

"You know what, Abs? Never mind. Just forget I asked. You could've just said no and I'd pretend I didn't care like I always do, but I guess the idea was dumb enough it didn't even warrant a response at all."

Abby winced. She really hadn't meant to take so long to respond. She pulled up at the restaurant and climbed out of the car. Connor did the same, slamming his door as he did so, and Abby quickly came around to his side of the vehicle and took his hand. Connor pulled away and started to walk ahead of her.

"Connor, stop," Abby ordered, "_before_ I turn into Scary Kickboxing Abby."

Connor grumbled, but moved back to where she was standing and leaned back against the car, looking at her impatiently.

"I'm sorry," Abby offered.

"Because you ignored me, or because I'm a pathetic loser you'd never date?"

"Neither. I'm sorry I didn't answer fast enough. I was going to respond, Connor, I was thinking about it, is all."

She saw the anger in Connor's face drain away and become replaced by the sad look again. "Thinking about how to let me down, you mean," he stated matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry I got so mad."

Abby nodded, "Connor, it's just… if we're gonna go on a proper date, I don't want to spend it looking at dead versions of the creatures I try to save."

Surprise crept across Connor's face slowly as he processed her words. He swallowed nervously and then asked, "What about a different date, Abs? Would you say yes if I came up with a better location?"

Abby smiled shyly, "I'd like that," she admitted. "I'd like that a lot."

Connor whooped and lifted Abby off her feet in a tight bear hug, laughing. "Oi! Abby! I'll come up with somewhere brilliant, yeah? I'll surprise you."

Abby laughed too as he put her down again. "Nothing too geeky though, Con."

Connor hesitated, "Maybe you should give me some ideas actually, eh?"

Abby chuckled, "Well we could pretend that Lester isn't paying us tonight and make this a proper date, yeah?"

Connor frowned, "But Abby, we're going to dinner tonight regardless. I want to take you out another time too. Tonight doesn't count."

"Only you know, us going on a date, it doesn't have to be a one-time thing, Con. We can have a second date after the first one, and a third and a fourth, if you like."

Connor grinned widely, "Yeah? So we're just officially dating now?"

Abby nodded, "Just promise me something, Con."

He looked at her, eager to promise her the world if she asked for it.

"I don't want things to change," Abby said, cautiously. "Whether we're dating or not, or even if we date and decide it doesn't work later, promise me we'll sort it and still be best friends. I don't want to lose you."

Connor nodded, "I promise, Abs. But me and you will work because we're both stubborn enough to work hard at a relationship no matter what."

Abby smiled, "You especially. You've never given up on me, have you? Not since we met. Not too many people could change my mind like that. Now c'mon on, we can't be late for our reservations."

Connor nodded and this time when Abby slipped her hand into his, he didn't pull away.

* * *

><p>Abby and Connor stared in surprise when they entered the elegant Mediterranean-Style restaurant. It certainly was the nicest place that either of them had ever eaten at, but what surprised them most was the lack of other customers. The moment they entered they were greeted by name and sat down at a candlelit table for two with a single pink rose in the centre.<p>

"For such a nice place, it's not very busy here, is it?" Abby commented to the waiter as he poured their champagne for them.

"James Lester hired it for the night for you two. Normally it would be much busier. He must have some great connections to get them to agree on such short notice, or at all."

Abby gave Connor a look of disbelief and waited for the waiter to move off before speaking, "I can't believe he went to so much trouble for us!"

"I can," Connor retorted with a laugh, "He was probably afraid the champagne'd make me do something stupid."

"Like stand on the table and announce you're a time-travelling dinosaur's hero?" Abby chuckled at the image.

"Exactly," Connor laughed. "You'll have to tell him I behaved myself nicely."

Abby raised her eyebrows, "First, let's see if you actually do behave yourself."

Connor grinned mischievously and started up a game of footsy with her under the table. "Me? Misbehave? You must be thinking of someone else, Abby."

Abby giggled as the waiter returned to take their orders. Keeping in the spirit of the restaurant, Abby ordered the Mediterranean chicken, some steamed vegetables, and a bowl of red clam chowder. Connor ordered a steak and cheese-stuffed potato and the waiter promised them that their meals would be ready in about twenty minutes and pointed out the dance floor to them if they wanted to dance while they waited.

Connor surprised Abby by jumping up immediately and offering his hand to her. "Shall we?" he asked.

Abby grinned and let him escort her to the dance floor where some soft romantic music was playing. Immediately Connor put his arms around her waist, drawing her quite close to him, and Abby wrapped her own arms around his neck, resting her head on his chest and letting him just hold her up as they swayed a bit to the music. She heard him sigh contentedly and felt his grip tighten on her a little bit and she smiled.

After a couple minutes, she felt Connor placing kisses in her hair and then suddenly he spoke, "Abs, look at me, please, so I can kiss you properly."

Abby laughed happily as she complied and Connor immediately captured her lips with is own. She smiled against him when she felt the eagerness in his kiss and after a bit she pulled away and went back to resting her head on his chest. They were both contentedly silent for awhile longer until she suddenly heard Connor whisper against her hair, "Abby, Ge Mellon."

She could've laughed outright as she looked up at him. "Me too, Connor. Ge Mellon."

Connor stared at her in shock, "Abby, do you even know what it means?"

She nodded. "I do, Con. I looked it up for you before. I mean it, Connor: I love you."

Connor grinned at her, "Abby, this is the best day ever! I said it would be before we left, but it's sooo much better than I expected even."

"Even though the mithril wasn't real?" Abby teased.

Connor nodded giving her another quick kiss, just because he was allowed to. "Yeah, Abby. And I was thinking, since we had so much fun at this convention, we could do something to relive it for our one month anniversary. In exactly a month there'll be this Star Wars convention in Oxford and maybe if I start comparing creatures to Ewoks we won't have to pay…"

Abby burst out laughing and kissed him to shut him up. "Connor?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't press your luck."


	3. Being Social (SarahDanny)

Sarah sighed impatiently as she hid out in a ladies' room stall. She was very much regretting the fact that she'd insisted on meeting Danny at the social instead of just driving in with him like he'd wanted to do. As usual, Danny was considerably late, and Sarah had been fielding questions about who she was and what the ARC did for the past twenty minutes on her own.

It was her own fault of course. She should have just explained her job away with a boring lie such as "filing mostly" or "just paperwork stuff," but instead she'd used the words "classified" and "top secret" to describe what she did and suddenly it was everyone's mission to get her to spill her secret. After all, it wasn't like there was much else for them to do here. Sure there was a dance floor, but mostly everyone here was strangers or colleagues rather than dating couples, so very few were actually interested in using it.

Sarah pulled her mobile out of her purse and sent Danny a quick text. _"Danny, where the hell are you?"_

She gave a little sigh of relief when the reply came almost instantly, _"Just pulling up now. Sorry!"_

Sarah put her mobile back away without answering and left to go find him, sneaking around the room by way of the wall so that she wouldn't be noticed again. She was happy to see him making his way across the parking lot towards her, but quickly hid her grin with full intentions of scolding him for his tardiness.

"You look_ fantastic!_" Danny said as he approached her, and Sarah gave up the façade, not able to hide the pleasure from her face at the compliment. After all, she'd gone out of her way to make sure she looked good. She'd donned a strapless velvet royal blue dress that fell to her knees and was trimmed with silver rhinestones that outlined the slit over her left thigh giving her movement for dancing. She'd also chosen royal blue stilettos and her hair was done up in a loose bun.

"I know I do," she boasted teasingly, "And I'll tell you that you look great yourself in that tux, but before I do that, I need to accuse you of being late and demand an explanation."

Danny chuckled, "I am sorry, Sare. I was looking into something."

Sarah nodded for him to continue, "Looking into what, exactly?"

"Later. I'll tell you at dinner. How's the party so far?"

"Horrid, you owe me big time for being late, I hope you realise that."

"I do, I'll make it up to you. You can order the most expensive thing on the menu tonight."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Nice try, Danny, but when I say you owe me, I'm not talking about something that will come out of Lester or the Minister's pocketbook."

"Had to try," Danny laughed. "What did you have in mind then?"

"Nothing yet, but I'll think of something," Sarah laughed. "In the meantime, we should get back inside. Let me warn you, Lester was right, don't talk to anyone if you can help it."

"That bad eh? Maybe we could liven the place up."

"Danny…" Sarah warned.

"Just kidding, Sarah," Danny grinned at her. "I won't draw any attention to us. Anyway, don't fret because this party just got a _hundred_ times better for you; I'm here."

"And as humble as ever, I see."

"Hard to be humble when I've got the prettiest date here," Danny replied cheekily, reaching for Sarah's hand and kissing it coyly.

Sarah laughed, "Now you're talking, though I daresay you haven't actually seen the others yet."

Danny shrugged and tugged at her hand to lead her inside, "Don't need to, Sare. It's impossible that anyone could be more gorgeous."

Sarah was sure he was teasing as always, so she silently chastised herself when she inadvertently let her guard down, biting her lip and blushing. She glanced at Danny to see if he'd noticed and saw him quickly mask his expression of curious surprise and replace it with one of amusement. He'd definitely noticed. Just before the silence between them could grow awkward though, Danny grinned at her, "And you're even prettier when you blush," he added, kissing her cheek and giving her a wink.

Sarah pulled her hand from his and swatted at him playfully, "You're too cocky for your own good; you know that?"

"Yep," Danny grinned, "But you like me anyway."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive."

* * *

><p>When Sarah and Danny entered the hall, Sarah felt Danny reach immediately for her hand again, and she let him hold it this time. She wanted everyone to know that Danny was taken, even if technically, he wasn't. She had no intentions of sharing him with anyone else tonight at any rate and she had Lester's orders that they stick to themselves to back her up. Not that she needed any help in the matter as Danny seemed uninterested in leaving her side anyway. The first thing he did was drag her over to the open bar and order a martini for each of them.<p>

"Danny," Sarah whispered to him, "Don't drink too much. These people are like piranhas, ready to attack and make you talk the moment your guard is down. They want to know all about the ARC."

"Just the one then," Danny promised, taking a sip of his drink, "And then we'll dance."

Sarah didn't have time to reply before she noticed that they were being approached by one of the more persistent men she'd had to hide from earlier. She groaned and Danny gave her a puzzled look and then turned around, following her gaze behind his stool.

"Hey!" the man greeted him, jumping up onto the barstool on Danny's other side. "Nice to meet you. I'm Gerald from Human Resources."

"Um, hi. Danny." Danny introduced himself, "And this is Sarah."

"Yeah, I met her earlier. Do you two work together?"

Sarah had hoped that Danny would lie and say no so that Gerald wouldn't ask Danny the same questions she'd already answered, but Danny was already nodding before she could get his attention. "We sure do, and I'd probably be going stir crazy at work if we didn't. Everyone else on the job is slightly insane."

"Including you," Sarah laughed.

"Especially me. Actually I don't know how you remain so normal, Sare. Not with us lot around."

"What exactly do you do?" Gerald asked, trying to draw the conversation back to where he wanted it.

"Oh, that's classified," Danny said, making the same mistake Sarah already had, not that it mattered now.

Gerald frowned, "You insult me. I'm not some random person off the street; I'm a high up government official."

Then he changed his tone as he turned around to the bartender and snapped his fingers, "Sir! These two would like a second drink."

Danny saw the trap immediately and shook his head, "Actually, we were just about to hit the dance floor, weren't we Sarah?"

Sarah nodded, quickly finishing off her martini and jumping to her feet, grateful that Danny was behaving for once.

Gerald frowned as he watched them walk off and Sarah saw him go over to talk to a few of the others who'd been bothering her earlier, but she didn't really care now that she was dancing with Danny. She told herself that was just because of her relief that they'd probably be left alone now for a bit, but to be honest, she was realising that the idea of her having feelings for Danny might not be as big a joke as they liked to act out at times. For one thing, her heart was definitely beating a bit faster than usual as he held her close and swayed to the music, and she hoped he couldn't feel it through their joined palms.

After a few moments, Danny leaned closer to her ear and whispered, "Don't worry about them busybodies, Sare. We'll dance for a bit and then get outta here. Lester only said we had to make an appearance. No reason to stay long."

Sarah nodded and when instead of pulling back a bit again, Danny kissed her ear, she let herself smile up at him. They both jumped, startled, when a bright flash suddenly indicated that someone was photographing them. They looked around and found Gerald standing there with a grin and a camera.

"Tell me what you do for a living or I'll send this photo to your boss," he threatened.

Sarah and Danny exchanged a puzzled look. "And why would he care?" Danny voiced the question they were both wondering.

Sarah giggled suddenly, "Maybe Lester'll frame it and hang it on his office wall and tell everyone we're his favourite employees."

"No more alcohol for you," Danny teased before turning back to Gerald. "Let's see the photo."

Gerald held out the camera and Danny and Sarah both moved close to see the picture. It was a rather nice one of them smiling at each other. Danny shrugged and then pulled out a piece of paper from his wallet and wrote something on it. "I'm still not sure," he said, "Why you think you need to know what we do for a living, but here's our boss' email address and I've written my own underneath it. When you send him the picture, I wouldn't mind a copy for myself. It's rather a good one, don't you think Sarah?"

Sarah nodded, but Gerald frowned. "In my experience, the government frowns upon employees dating each other. Surely your boss will be unhappy to see this."

"It's a government funded social. Our boss is paying us to be here," Sarah replied, puzzled.

"So's mine," Gerald replied, "But there's a big difference between showing up as co-workers and showing up as a proper couple."

"We're actually not," Sarah replied, "But I'm sure he wouldn't have an issue with it if we were. Lester doesn't care about that sort of thing, as long as we get our work done."

Gerald's eyes lit up, "Oh, well, if your not dating…" he turned to Sarah, "May I have the next dance?"

"No," Danny answered hurriedly before Sarah could reply. Sarah bit her lip to hide back her grin.

"And why not?" Gerald asked pointedly.

Danny shrugged, knowing that to say their boss ordered them to dance with only each other would cause even more suspicion, so he just said, "Because couple or not, I still like to act out the role of Sarah's possessive boyfriend, don't I, Doll?"

Sarah burst out laughing, "Apparently so, Darling. Sorry Gerald, but I can't make my Danny-Boy jealous. He thinks I'm his."

Gerald hesitated, clearly flummoxed, and Danny took the opportunity to ask, "What's it matter to you anyway? You don't even know us, so why do you care what we do for a living?"

Gerald hesitated and then, seeing as he wasn't getting anywhere with them, went for the truth. "Okay, a few of us have a bet going as to who can get the information out of you first._ C'mon_ guys, I've got money on the line here, you gotta tell me!"

"You won't win any or lose any, because no one is gonna win this one," Danny pointed out.

Gerald sighed but finally moved to leave them alone and Sarah pointed out to Danny that when Gerald told the others he had failed, someone else would surely be along to bother them soon.

"Forget them, Sare," Danny responded, pulling her back into his arms. "Dance with me."

Sarah willingly complied.

* * *

><p>"I don't know if you've noticed, but they've not yet left us alone," Sarah whispered after a half hour of non-interrupted dancing.<p>

Danny glanced at her, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Sarah spoke even softer than before and Danny had to lean quite close to hear her. "The groups with the bet, they keep dancing awfully close to us. I think they're trying to eavesdrop."

"We should just tell them; they wouldn't believe us anyway," Danny chuckled quietly.

"Or," Sarah answered, her eyes sparkling, "We could let them 'overhear' us talking about our fake job."

Danny grinned and spoke a bit louder, just enough to be overheard while still trying to sound like he didn't want to be. "Sare, _please _can I copy your reports from this morning? Lester wants it in tomorrow morning and I didn't pay _any_ attention in the meeting."

Sarah faked a frown, "Well you should've. You don't think he'll realise he's reading the same report twice?"

"I won't copy it word for word, just the general idea."

Sarah gave an exasperated sigh, trying to hide her smile when she noticed the other dance pairings moving in even closer to them. "I dunno. It's not fair that you make me do the work, you know. Give me one good reason why I should let you copy."

Danny grinned at her, "I can give you two. One, because you know how boring I find Lester's speeches about escaped criminals and two…" he paused, noticing the suddenly intrigued look on the others' faces and lowered his voice again so that just Sarah could hear him, "Because we both know you aren't _always_ joking when you say you love me."

Sarah blushed for the second time that evening and quickly rested her head on Danny's shoulder, facing away from him, so he couldn't tell. "You're full of yourself, you know that," she replied. "I daresay the same applies to you."

She felt proud of herself for not letting on that her accusation had left her feeling a bit flustered and vulnerable, but she couldn't help the audible sigh of relief when she felt him kiss the top of her head and admit seriously, "Of course it does, Sarah."

Sarah smiled and looked back up at him, raising her voice a tiny bit again, "In that case, you can copy as many reports as you like."

Danny grinned and gave her one more kiss, this time on her cheek, "Thank-you, Sarah."

"You're very welcome."

Danny suddenly stopped dancing and pulled back from her a bit, still holding her hand. "C'mon, Sare. We made our appearance. What say you we grab another drink and get outta here?"

Sarah was all too happy to agree with that.

* * *

><p>By the time they had a second martini and successfully dodged a few more questions each it was nearly 8:30 anyway and they both felt quite confident that they had stayed for at least as long as necessary. Danny fired off a text to Lester to inform him that they'd had enough of government busybodies and were skipping out early. No reply came, but he hadn't really expected to receive one, he just didn't want to be held accountable if they were missed after all.<p>

Danny pressed his hand gently to the small of Sarah's back as he gently guided her out of the hall and to the front lobby where he checked in and asked which room Lester had booked for them. They received their key and then Danny helped Sarah on with her coat as they headed back to the parking lot to fetch their overnight things from their vehicles.

"You know," Sarah said. "We could have just called a cab and gone home tonight."

"And skip our posh night out? Sarah, that's the reward for_ going_ to this thing. Besides, Lester would never have it."

"Why not? Would've been a hell of a lot cheaper for him."

"Defeats the point of the evening though. I'll explain over dinner," Danny said as he heaved his bag from the truck's boot and then looked at Sarah. "Where'd you park?"

Sarah gestured across the underground car lot to her car and then asked as they began walking,. "What do you mean? Not that I'm protesting, I'm all for the posh night out, but I thought the point was to make an appearance at this social and represent the ARC. We've already done that."

"Yeah, well, that's what I was looking into when I was late."

"Which you still owe me for," Sarah interrupted pointedly.

"I know, I know. Like I said, I'll tell you everything over dinner. Let's just say that Lester wasn't one-hundred percent honest with us."

"Oh please don't say there're more government officials for us to entertain at the dinner tonight."

"No, no, nothing like that. Nothing to fret about."

"Then why won't you tell me now?"

"Well I didn't tell you in there, because I didn't want the Nosys to overhear, and now I'm putting it off because I'm hungry."

Sarah chuckled as she unlocked the boot of her vehicle and gestured to three large suitcases. "I couldn't decide what I wanted to wear tomorrow, so I just threw everything into here."

Danny stared at her in disbelief, "Sarah, it's _one _night!"

"I know. And now if you'll be so kind as to carry my luggage to my room for me…"

Danny started to protest, but Sarah gave him a silencing look and continued, "Remember; you owe me. Consider this the start."

Danny sighed and chucked his one light bag at her. "Fine, but the least you can do is carry the bag then, and maybe open the doors."

Sarah smiled and nodded, wondering what else she could get him to do by night's end. She had every intention of making sure her twenty minute wait at the start of the night was well worth it.

* * *

><p>Sarah opened the door to the hotel room for Danny and let him pass with her three bags that he was struggling to keep balanced. He gave a little grunt as he entered the room and tossed them on the bed and Sarah threw his bag into the pile as well before wrapping her jacket a bit tighter around her and opening the door to the balcony. Lester had promised them a lovely view and she wanted to check it out. She wasn't disappointed, the hotel looked across the Thames toward Big Ben and she had timed her investigation perfectly with the last of the sunset. She stood watching for a few minutes while Danny poked about in the hotel room, before rejoining him because of the cold air.<p>

When she'd shut the glass door again, Danny moved to her side and helped her slip her coat from her shoulders, tossing it to the bed with the rest of her stuff.

"Danny, I might need that if we're going out."

"Something I wanna do before we leave," he said calmly.

"What's that?"

"This," Danny replied.

Sarah barely had time to let out a surprised gasp before she found herself pressed up against the wall with Danny's lips on hers. He was kissing her hungrily and passionately and she let herself kiss him back for just a moment, bringing her hands to the back of his head to deepen it for a second before getting a hold of herself and shoving him away again.

"Danny, what the hell?" It wasn't the first time they'd kissed before, but it was the first time they'd kissed when they weren't in front of their co-workers at the ARC trying to tease Lester and the others with their blatant displays of public affection when they weren't even together, and it was certainly the first time their kisses had been anything like _that. _Normally they were a simple quick peck.

Danny grinned at her, "Don't give me that, Sare; you enjoyed it too. And you should know, that had nothing to do with Lester."

"What?" Sarah shook her head in puzzlement.

"You heard me. I'm telling you now so you don't have to fret about it later."

"Yes, well, I should bloody well hope that it had nothing to do with Lester. What I would like to know is where it came from?"

Danny smiled, "Just tired of playacting all the time, is all. We already admitted that our feelings are at least sometimes real, I figure it doesn't hurt to experiment a bit, yeah?"

"Yeah," Sarah agreed, feeling a bit light headed now that the kiss and his words were sinking in.

Danny leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers and grabbed her hand, guiding it to rest on his chest. "Feel my heart beating fast like that, Sare? You're the only one that can make it do that. Seems you've staked your claim on my heart and it's only fair you let me do them same with yours, so that'd be my intentions whether you accept the fact yet or not."

Sarah bit her lip and smiled, her eyes resting upon their hands, but not moving away from him. "I suppose I could accept that as long as…"

"As long as what…"

"I can't help but to wonder why you brought him up, so this_ really_ better not be about Lester."

Danny burst out laughing and stepped away from her, keeping his hand entwined with hers. "C'mon, I say we go for dinner now, I'm starved, and then I'll tell you what I meant while we await our order."

Sarah reached with her free hand to grab her coat and purse and then let him lead her out the door.

* * *

><p>The restaurant was on the first floor, inconveniently close to the hall where the Government Dance &amp; Social was still going on, so Sarah and Danny did their best to sneak around through the back hallways to avoid being caught again. The last thing they wanted was for Gerald and the others to find out they were actually staying at the hotel. When they arrived at the restaurant, they asked for the most private booth possible in which to sit, just in case anyone else came in and recognized them. Their luck was with them though, and no one from the Social did venture inside.<p>

Sarah and Danny slid into the red coloured booth and the waiter handed them their menus and left. Sarah turned to Danny, "Okay, so what did you have to tell me?"

"Shhh… reading here, Sare," Danny winked at her before returning to his menu.

Sarah rolled her eyes but decided not to be reduced to begging for information. She went back to her menu with the intention of not asking again and pretending to be disinterested until he told her what he wanted without her prompts.

When the waiter came back, Sarah ordered herself some veal parmesan and a Caesar salad and Danny asked for the ribs and a bowl of soup. They both sat in silence for a moment, Danny waiting for Sarah to ask her question again and Sarah refusing to do so, until finally Danny gave in.

"Okay," he said with a sigh. "I did a bit of research. You know that hotel that Lester put Abby and Connor up in?"

"Yes?" Sarah asked carefully, wondering where this was leading.

"He lied to them. There were plenty of available rooms."

"Okay," Sarah nodded, thinking that there had to be more to this story.

"And did you know that the ARC wasn't even invited to the Dance & Social tonight? Lester practically had to beg for us to be included because of the top secret nature of our work. The Minister had actually advised against us going."

"_What?_ Why would he do that?"

"To get us here. Sarah, do you really think Lester gives a crap about Connor's Tolkien ramblings? _Lester was trying to set us up_. He didn't care if we attended the social or not, but he needed an excuse to send us on an evening out!" Danny proclaimed triumphantly, obviously proud of his deduction.

Sarah hesitated, "That doesn't sound like Lester."

"No, you're right, it doesn't, but he had his motives. I confronted him on the matter."

"Seriously? And he admitted it?"

"Not at first, but eventually. He said that we were wasting his time with our Shakespearean playacting and we may as well get our feelings out in the open and be done with it so that we could get back to work. I was still discussing the matter with him just before I left which is why I was late."

"And so you just decided to do what you're told?" Sarah asked, suddenly upset.

"No, Sarah, that's why I told you ahead of time. Me and you, we've nothing to do with Lester, okay? Nothing."

"Right," Sarah nodded, relieved, "And did you _tell_ Lester that you would heed his orders and follow your heart?"

"No, course not. Wasn't about to give him the satisfaction, especially not before I'd talked to you. In fact, I left him pretty concerned I think. I believe the words he yelled at me as I walked out the door were, _"This better not have been a waste of my money, Quinn! I expect you two to be a couple when this weekend's done whether you like each other or not!"_"

Sarah giggled, "Now _that _sounds like Lester."

"I have to say, though, he did give me the confidence to pursue the matter, Sare. I wasn't going to until he told me that he was sure you liked me back. I wasn't positive he was right, but when I saw you blush, I thought…" he trailed off and they both fell silent for a moment.

"Did you let Abby and Connor know?" Sarah suddenly asked.

"No. Why bother? Those two are bound to end up together anyway."

"Like we were?"

"Exactly. Are we officially together then?"

Sarah stood up and then sat beside Danny on his side of the booth, leaning close to kiss him gently before standing up and returning to her seat. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yep," Danny grinned.

"Still," Sarah replied, "I guess we ought to thank Lester for all this then. I mean, he did really go out of his way for us."

"He did," Danny agreed with a laugh, "And I know exactly how to do so."

* * *

><p>A couple of hours later, Sarah grinned at Danny from where she sat on the hotel bed as Danny hung up the phone.<p>

"There," he said, "Mission accomplished. One thank-you card and two tickets to see Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet next weekend will be delivered to Lester's wife tomorrow morning."

"Perfect," Sarah grinned at him, "So perfect."

"Me or the gift?" Danny teased her.

Sarah swatted at him playfully, but when he caught her and kissed her again, she wasn't really sure of the answer herself.


	4. Whatever it Takes (Lester)

Lester looked up from his paperwork when he heard the door to his office open. Abby and Connor entered and quickly shut the door behind themselves again.

"Can I _help_ you?" Lester asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Abby nodded, "Do you remember that weekend a couple years ago when you sent us to the Lord of the Rings convention? We were wondering if would do the same for Jess and Becker."

Lester stared at her as though she'd gone mad. "Why the hell would I do that? Connor here knew more about Tolkien than either of them and he concluded Tolkien had no anomaly. Anyway, it was a bloody waste of company time and money since Connor here never_ did_ take any notes."

"Forgot," Connor said, "But we don't mean a Lord of the Rings convention. We just need your help getting Jess and Becker together like you did with us."

"I did nothing of the sort. What do you think I'm running here? A government funded matchmaking agency?"

"Oh, _c'mon!"_ Abby answered back. "You hired out the entire, very romantic, restaurant for our private use and made us share a hotel room. Don't worry; we won't tell the Minister."

"Should bloody well hope not, or you'll both be fired. It was different though; no one was getting any work done. Jess and Becker actually accomplish quite a lot, so I see no reason why I should get involved."

Abby grinned and pulled a crumpled brochure out of her pocket. "There's a taser gun show in Paris next week. Maybe Becker should go and see if we need any new weapons. He knows a lot about guns."

"He'll order everything there!" Lester protested.

"No, he won't find anything useful," Abby laughed. "There won't be anything more effective than the EMD's and if there is, we should really be considering it."

"And what does this have to do with Jess?"

"She's fluent in French. You should probably send her as Becker's translator."

Lester smoothed out the brochure and glanced over it with a bit of interest. "Very well, but I'm _only _doing this because of the gun show."

"What else?" Abby smiled.

"One thing though," Connor suddenly spoke up. "We've looked at the flights there and back and did you know it's actually cheaper to fly on Tuesdays. Might wanna think about sending them for a full week."

"The extra hotel stays will surely make up that cost and more. The show is one afternoon long. Why a week?"

"Because Becker's gonna take that long to figure out his feelings," Connor retorted.

Lester rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, fine, whatever. Tell them I want to see them in my office in twenty minutes. Now off you go, back to work, both of you."

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later, Jess and Becker entered the office looking puzzled. "You wanted to see us, Sir?" Becker questioned.<p>

Lester nodded and motioned for them to shut the door and sit down. When they had, he looked at Becker and handed him the brochure for the gun show. "There's a gun show, tasers only of course, next Friday. I want you to attend and see if there's anything stronger than what we've got. It'd be good if we could knock out some of the stronger creatures in a few less shots. Besides, Matt says the EMD's are good for a T-Rex, but what happens when we get our next G-Rex? See if they've got something, will you?"

Becker glowered, "A_ tank_ would do the job, Sir."

"Tasers!"

Becker sighed, "Fine, I'll go."

"I wasn't actually giving you the option. The gun show is in Paris and I've booked you a flight out for Tuesday. Apparently it's cheaper to fly on Tuesdays or some such nonsense as that, so you'll be there a week."

_"Paris?_" Jess piped up, looking horrified, "You're sending Becker away for an entire week to _Paris?_ What if we need him here! That's too far. What if he meets someone and decides to stay there? It_ is_ the romantic capital of the world after all!"

Becker raised his eyebrows as he glanced at Jess, "I'm not exactly Mr. Romance though, am I, Jess? Are you more worried about the romance, or what would happen to the ARC if I don't come back?"

Jess blushed, "The ARC of course. I only meant…"

"Never mind, Jess," Lester interrupted. "I'm counting on you to make _sure_ he comes back and to make sure he doesn't get lost out there. I'm told you're fluent in French so I'm sending you with him to translate."

Jess' expression changed quickly from horror to ecstasy. "_Really?_ To Paris? For a week? With Becker? In Paris?"

"Yes, I'm glad you were listening."

Becker was smiling too. "Good, at least I won't be bored out of my mind all week then, if Jess will be there to entertain me."

Jess paused suddenly, looking a bit puzzled, as if she was trying to remember something that was bothering her, but she couldn't think what. Finally she shook her head a bit to clear her mind and asked, "I presume you've got everything booked and all that now then? No changing your mind, right?"

Lester handed Jess a sheet of loose leaf with the information on it they'd need. "Of course. You don't become senior management without extreme organizational skills. This is the address for the hotel as well as the times for your flights. You'll get your tickets at the airport, but they've been paid for already. And now, you're dismissed. You can go tell Abby and Connor they'll have the flat to themselves for the week or whatever it is you plan on doing now that I'm sure isn't work related since I know that'd be far too much to ask. Go on!"

Jess flung her arms around a surprised Lester's neck in a quick hug before running from the office to do just that. As soon as she was gone, Lester turned to Becker, "I expect you to stick with her at all times. I don't want anything happening to her, do you understand? A good field co-ordinator is hard to come by these days."

"I'll take care of her," Becker promised.

"Good, now get going; you'll need to pack I assume."

"Yes, Sir. Thank-you," Becker replied, ducking out of the office.

Lester nodded and went back to his paper work with a rare smile on his face.


	5. Sightseeing (Jess & Becker Part 1)

_"Abby!"_ Jess called out into the living room in a bit of a panic, "I need your help!"

Abby appeared in Jess' bedroom a moment later, followed closely by Connor who wanted to see if he could be useful as well. Jess glanced at them both from where she stood by her now empty closet; every article of clothing she owned was strewn across the room. "What exactly _does_ one pack for a week in Paris with Becker?" she demanded, giving her foot a bit of an impatient stomp.

Abby shrugged, "I think, Jess, the decision is just too hard. I can loan you my suitcase too and then you can just take everything."

Jess nodded contemplatively, "It's a good idea, Abs, and one I thought about myself, but then I'd have to pay to take the extra luggage on the plane and I'd still run into trouble when I got to Paris, as I'd have no idea what to wear each day. Besides Becker'll never let me live it down if I showed up with so much clothing."

Connor stepped overtop of a pile of clothing on the floor and picked up a purple skirt from her bed, "Put this back in your closet. I've seen you wear it to work before, therefore, Becker's seen it before too."

Jess' face lit up. "Connor, you're a_ genius!_" Then with Abby and Connor's help they quickly put away any outfit that Becker would have already seen. The pile grew considerably smaller, but it was still much too large to fit in Jess' one suitcase.

"Okay," Abby said, following Connor's line of thinking, "Now let's take away any item of clothing that you are likely to wear to work in the near future, or even at all. Becker can see those outfits later, when you do."

"Right," Jess said, beginning to put away some more things she'd bought specifically for the ARC.

"Man," Abby commented, "You have a lot of clothing. Jess, over half these things still have the tags on them."

"I like to shop," Jess replied casually.

"You're _kidding?_" Connor spoke sarcastically, _"Never_ would've guessed that."

Jess swatted at him playfully with a cardigan she was placing on its hanger.

"Um, Jess," Abby suddenly interrupted their banter as something caught her eye. She lifted up a cute light orange flirty sundress, "This is adorable, but…"

"But what?" Jess asked when Abby trailed off, suddenly wondering if her new dress had some sort of tear or defect that she hadn't noticed in the store.

"But you have the same dress here in…" Abby paused, counting, _"Fifteen_ different colours and every single one still has tags."

Jess shrugged a bit guiltily, "They were on sale though, Abs, and I couldn't decide which to get. Besides, even _you_ admit it's cute."

"I'll bet every time you walk into a store, every employee there runs over to help you," Abby laughed.

Connor made his way over to see the dress collection and grinned pulling a red one out of the pile. "This would look fantastic on you, Abby. You should borrow it one day. You don't wear red nearly enough."

Jess glanced up from the dress to Abby and nodded, "Connor's right. You should take it, Abby. I'll never really get around to wearing it anyway, and like you said, I have fifteen!"

Abby hesitated, but then smiled, "Thanks, Jess!"

"No problem, I guess I owe you for helping me pack!"

"Sure, I mean, it's not like you don't already let us live with you," Connor teased.

"Shut up, Connor!" Abby hissed at him, "I want the dress!"

"I don't think she cares, Abs, in fact, you could probably come here anytime you need to go clothing shopping. It's like a little boutique in the room next door. Now, Jess, you should really take that orange dress Abby had a moment ago to Paris with you, as well as this one," he held up an identical but pea green coloured dress. "They'd look nice on you."

Jess smiled and folded the two dresses neatly into her suitcase while Abby put the rest back into the closet. Connor then glanced at his watch and smiled, "Well, nice helping you, Girls, but I've got an appointment with the television and Dr. Who, so I'm gonna leave the rest of the girly clothing selections to you two."

Jess nodded and kissed his cheek, "Thanks, Connor, for all your help."

"Not a problem," Connor said with a grin, exchanging a meaningful look with Abby. She nodded to him and Connor quickly slipped out of the room to make a quick phone call.

* * *

><p>Becker was just shoving the last couple of items into his suitcase when he got a phone call from Connor.<p>

"Connor, what's up?" he answered. "I've got a flight to catch in a few hours, so I hope this is important."

"It is," Connor said. "Listen, um, Abby and I really, _really_ want to have a night alone together tonight."

"So?" Becker asked, puzzled. "What's that gotta do with me? Are you asking my permission?"

Connor rolled his eyes, but knew that Becker couldn't see him. "Noooo, but driving Jess to the airport wasn't exactly what we had in mind. We were wondering if you would do us a favour and come pick her up."

"Oh, yeah, I see what you're saying. Sure, I mean, I'm going there anyway. Have fun tonight, Connor. I'll swing by there in about two hours then."

"Yep, thanks Becker!" Connor grinned to himself. He didn't think he'd ever heard Action Man quite so eager to do a favour for himself or Abby before. "See you then."

He hung up the phone and then peeked back into Jess' bedroom and gave Abby the thumbs up sign over the back of Jess' head before slinking back away to turn on the TV so that Jess wouldn't suspect a thing. Not that she wouldn't find out, soon enough, but they were hoping that Jess didn't know Becker was picking her up until he arrived. That way she couldn't back out of the deal with offers to take a cab or something dumb like that. It wasn't that Jess wouldn't _want _to spend the extra time with Becker, Connor mused, it was just that Jess sometimes tried too hard to be helpful and she might offer so that Becker didn't have to go out of his way. And Becker could possibly be dumb enough to accept.

* * *

><p>Jess had barely finished packing when the doorbell rang. Connor opened it and found Becker standing there which a smile on his face. Connor greeted him enthusiastically and then called over to the girls, <em>"Becker's here!"<em>

Jess appeared instantly, looking somewhat flustered. "Becker! What are you doing here? I thought…"

"These two," Becker gestured from Connor to Abby who was right behind Jess, "Bailed out on you and said they can't take you to the airport after all, so I'm here to be your ride."

Jess looked at Abby questioningly to find out if that was true and why she hadn't been told before. Abby shrugged and then whispered to her, "Sorry Jess, just buying you some extra time with your favourite soldier. Have a great trip!"

Jess gave up on holding a grudge and threw her arms around her friend's neck. After all, they wouldn't be seeing each other for a week and it was too late for her to protest now. "I'll call," Jess promised.

"You'd better," Abby responded, laughing.

Jess then stepped away and moved over to Connor, pulling him into a hug too. "Stay out of trouble," she said to him smugly.

"You too," he responded, "And have fun, Kiddo."

"I can't believe you guys tricked me like that," she whispered to him, pulling back from him just enough to shoot him an accusing look, but staying within his embrace. "I'm letting it slide for now, but count on me getting you back later."

"I'm shaking with fear," Connor said with a grin as he tugged her ponytail.

Jess rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek goodbye before following Becker out to the car.

"Be good!" Connor called after them.

"And don't get lost!" Abby added. "And don't buy too many guns!"

"And have fun!" Connor yelled again.

"Oh, yeah, that too," Abby agreed, but Becker and Jess were already in the car and pulling away.

* * *

><p>Jess stared out the window of the car as Becker drove to the airport. She wasn't really concentrating on the scenery, there wasn't much to see, she just didn't want to be caught staring at Becker.<p>

After a few minutes Becker asked her, "Jess, you okay?"

She turned him, "Yes, better than okay, we're going to _Paris!_"

"You aren't acting like yourself."

Jess frowned, "I'm not?"

"No, you're too… quiet. I'm used to you being chatty. I thought you'd be extra chatty with excitement today."

Jess laughed. "Well, we've got a week and I don't want to run out of things to talk about. Honestly, maybe I'm still in a bit of disbelief that we're going. I feel like I'm in a dream or something. One of those really good dreams that you don't want to wake up from and so you stay really, _really, _still and quiet so you don't wake up, only it never works really, but maybe this will be the time I manage it. Except I'm hoping this one is real."

"_That's_ the Jess I know. May I ask, am I usually in these good dreams of yours?"

Jess blushed, "Sometimes. I mean, I dream about all the staff at the ARC, you know, the other day I dreamt that Emily and Connor got in a big fight. That was _not _such a good dream."

"But the ones I'm in are always good?"

"No," Jess replied quickly. She'd had as many bad dreams as good ones. Dreams where Becker had been hurt, or worse. She didn't want to discuss those just now though, so she quickly asked, "What about you? Do you ever dream about the ARC? Or me?"

Becker shrugged, suddenly putting a mask on his emotions, "I wouldn't know. I never remember my dreams after I wake up."

"Never?"

Becker glanced at her, "Not often. Maybe I remember a few."

"About?" Jess pressed.

Becker was silent and then changed the subject. "Well, here we are," he said, pulling the car up into the airport parking lot as Jess rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p><em>"I get the window seat!<em>" Jess announced gleefully as she slipped past him on the plane.

Becker sighed and sat beside her for long enough to open his carry on bag and fish out a bar of chocolate. "I thought it might come to this," he said. "Your seat for my snack?"

Jess frowned. "I don't think you're playing fair," she protested.

Becker just shrugged and unwrapped the chocolate slowly, breaking off a piece and popping it into his mouth. Jess pouted but, to his surprise, refused to give up her seat. "I like chocolate," she said, "But not enough that I can't wait to buy my own when we get to France. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Becker, and I'm staying put."

Becker chuckled and handed her the chocolate bar. "Okay, you win. It wasn't meant to be a bribe, anyway, I'd just picked it up for you on my way here."

Jess smiled at him, genuinely surprised, "More gestures like that and I just might let you have the window on the way home."

Becker laughed as he did up his seatbelt and then listened as the flight attendant made her little speech in both English and French. He saw Jess watching him curiously from the corner of her eye. "What?" He asked her.

"Nothing, it's just, I've never seen anyone listen that intently to the pre-takeoff instructions before."

Becker laughed, "Military training, I guess. I've heard it a billion times before, but I'm used to paying careful attention when it comes to anything safety related. After all, I'm supposed to be keeping you safe, so I'd better know how."

Jess shook her head, "Yeah, okay, keep telling yourself that then…"

Becker looked puzzled, "Telling myself what?"

"That you're here to keep me safe. I think you're forgetting that I was the one sent to help_ you_ so that _you_ didn't get lost. _You're_ here to go to a gun show."

"Oh, right. Hard to remember that when it's nothing but stupid tasers. If it were real guns, I'd be looking forward to it. As it stands, I think it's a bloody waste of time."

"We'll see…" Jess said with a hint of a smirk.

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you know something I don't?"

"Maybe," Jess laughed. "Let's just say I've done my research."

"What's so funny?"

"Never mind."

"Fine," Becker grumbled, "You keep your trip secret, and I'll keep mine."

"You've got a secret about this trip too?" Jess asked, instantly curious.

"I do."

Jess read his expression, and suddenly that nagging feeling that she'd had back in Lester's office came back to her, the one where she was trying to remember something, but she just couldn't quite. "Tell me," she ordered.

Becker shook his head with a smile, "No."

"Why not?"

Becker ignored her, and pulled a crossword book out of his bag as the plane began to lift off the ground. The truth was, he didn't care if she knew, he just liked to tease her, and he knew that having a secret would drive her insane.

* * *

><p>The plane landed shortly after it had taken off and made their way out of the airport and stepped outside. It was early morning, very early morning. The sun wasn't up yet, but it was too early to go to bed or they'd sleep half the day and not be tired in the evening.<p>

"Becker?" Jess asked, and Becker saw a little hopeful gleam in her eyes and knew that whatever she was about to say, he'd not be able to refuse her. He nodded for her to continue. "Can we_ walk_ to the hotel?"

Becker frowned, "Walk? Why? There's an airport shuttle and we've got all our bags to carry."

"I know," Jess said, "But this is _Paris, _Becker. I want to get a better look around. And anyway, the fresh air will wake us up."

Becker hesitated and then said, "We don't even know where the hotel is, Jess. We should take the shuttle, and then as soon as we get there, we can ditch the bags and we'll go for a walk."

"Promise?"

"I'm a man of my word, Jess. I promise."

Jess nodded and cheerfully climbed into the shuttle behind him. Becker smiled to himself when he noticed that she sat unnecessarily close to him. He wasn't quite sure she'd even noticed she did it. He'd begun, recently, to notice he did it too. He often found himself leaning just a little bit closer to the chair at the ADD when Jess was sitting in it than if anyone else was. Maybe they'd been around too many anomalies. Something about the magnetic force?

"What's so funny?" Jess demanded, interrupting his thoughts.

Becker realised that he'd been laughing to himself at the thought. He wondered how she'd react if he told her what he'd been thinking. He didn't want her to scoot away from his side though, so he left off the part about _them_ specifically. "I was just wondering," Becker said, "If we spent enough time near the anomalies, if we could turn into magnets and then everyone would be stuck to each other."

Jess stared at him as though he'd announced he was thinking of shaving his head. "_What?_ How would that be possible?"

Becker grinned at her and then leaned close so he could try and make her blush, "Just think, me and you would be stuck together like glue, all the time. Have to go everywhere together. Question is, would that be such a bad thing?"

He got his desired reaction as her cheeks turned pink and she avoided answering directly as she replied, "Of course it would, Becker, we'd also be stuck with Lester!"

"You like him though," Becker accused with a smile on his face.

"So do you," Jess stuck her tongue out, "But I'd still have to listen to you argue with him all the time. And don't forget all the other people we'd be stuck to. And having so many people in close proximity, you'd definitely have to give up your guns. It'd be way too dangerous."

"Or I could just shoot everyone so that we'd be free again and not stuck to them all."

"Would you shoot me?" Jess asked, giving him the choice of herself or his own freedom.

"Never," Becker answered earnestly and Jess' face lit up.

"I daresay you wouldn't really shoot anyone though," She laughed.

Becker shrugged, "No, probably not, but if I had no choice and had to take out everyone but one person, I'd keep you with me." He was surprising himself with his admission actually. Must be the Paris air.

"Really?" Jess almost squealed the word, due to her excitement that he'd say something so open to her.

"Really," Becker smiled at her, "But don't go telling anyone that or I just might change my mind."

* * *

><p>When they arrived at the hotel, Becker immediately grabbed Jess' luggage along with his own and headed to the elevators.<p>

Jess was silent for a little bit but once the elevator door had closed, she glanced at him. "You know, I can carry that."

"I know," Becker grinned at her, "But my mum taught me to be a gentleman, and you're not going to make me let my mother down, are you?"

Jess burst out laughing, "Woah, nice guilt trip. You're welcome to carry my bags and I'm going to be using that to get you to carry all my stuff from now on."

Becker smiled and shrugged, thinking that if it meant following her around all day, he might not mind. He knew he'd be doing so on this trip anyway, to make sure she stayed safe, of course, but there was something else too. He'd overheard some of the computer techs gossiping before they left and of all things, they'd been talking about himself and his feelings. He'd been a bit angry and had been about to head over there to set them straight that he didn't have feelings, when he'd heard one of them say that they imagined he actually fancied Jess almost as much as she fancied him. He'd stopped dead in his tracks and wondered if it were true that Jess fancied him too. Sure, he knew he could make her blush whenever he wanted too, and she often got flustered when he was there, but he'd always just assumed she was like that with everyone. He'd be watching her more carefully from now on. Not that he'd ever admit it.

The elevator door opened and Becker followed Jess to their suite, waiting as she unlocked the door.

"Wow!" she exclaimed up on entering, "This place is gorgeous."

It was, really. Lester had gone all out. The trimmings were all navy and gold and it looked like a palace. The main living area of the suite had an elegant high-backed sofa and there was a small kitchen off to the side. A small spiral staircase promised bedrooms upstairs and Becker picked up the luggage to go that way, followed closely by Jess. At the top of the staircase was a balconied hallway that looked back down over the living room on one side and had three doors on the other side, which Becker rightfully assumed led to the bathroom and two bedrooms.

"This place must be costing Lester a fortune," Becker commented. He glanced at Jess suspiciously. "How'd you get him to go for it?"

"I didn't," Jess said, "This trip is a surprise to me too, don't forget."

"Hmm… just seems like he spent a lot more on it than he would have if I'd been going alone," Becker laughed. "He spoils you, you know."

Jess laughed, "Well, if he does, you're benefiting, so no complaints."

"None at all," Becker agreed. "Now, which room do you want, so I can put your bags in it?"

Jess opened the door to both and peeked inside. They were both beautiful, again trimmed in gold and navy and complete with Robes on the doors and mints on the pillows. She shrugged, "They're the same, doesn't really matter, does it."

"In that case," Becker said, "I'd better take the one closest to the stairs. That way if someone breaks in, I'm between you and the burglar."

Jess stared at him in disbelief. "Becker, you are _really_ paranoid, you know that?"

Becker shrugged, "I'm not, really Jess. I'm just safety conscientious."

_"R-ight."_

Becker looked at her and saw the teasing expression on her face, so he grinned back at her and tossed her luggage into the room furthest from the stairs anyway, claiming the close one for himself while Jess continued to smirk at him.

_"Alright,"_ He said, turning to her, "You ready to go for a walk?"

Jess nodded eagerly. "Just let me get changed from my travel clothes," she said, disappearing into room. She came back about five minutes later wearing a bright pink skirt and bright purple t-shirt. Becker smiled, enjoying the burst of colour as she led him downstairs and down the elevator and back outside.

* * *

><p>It was morning out, barely. It was light now, but the sun wasn't up over the horizon just yet and the streets were quiet. It was a summer morning, still cool, but the weather promised to be sunny and hot. The grassy areas were coated in dew and it was silent enough that they could hear the echo of a front door clicking open three blocks away.<p>

"Which way?" Becker asked her.

Jess hesitated and then pulled out a portable SatNav from her purse. "This way," she said with a grin, pointing right up the street. "It's Paris, first thing on the list is the Eiffel tower, of course."

"Lead the way," Becker said, with a smile. "Let's get this done with then."

Jess frowned and stopped walking, "Done with?"

"The sightseeing stuff. We'll take a few hours, go see whatever it is you want to see and then we've got the rest of the week to chill in the hotel and get paid to do absolutely nothing."

_"Becker!"_ Jess protested, "I've got the full week planned out!"

"Then _you_ can do whatever you want, and_ I'll_ chill in the hotel room."

He saw her frown and felt instantly bad when he noticed a little tear in her eyes. She had, after all, been looking forward to this trip so excitedly and she had been up all night, it probably wasn't the best time to tease her.

"Becker, you can't mean that!"

"Jess…"

"Don't you want to see Notre Dame?"

"Jess."

"And go to a French Café for lunch and… and…"

"Jess!"

Jess stopped and looked at him, annoyed. "What?"

_"Relax,_ Jess. I was joking. Forgive me if I'm not very funny at five AM."

Jess breathed a little sigh of relief, "Oh, no, I'm just too tired to catch on. You are funny, really you are. I'm sorry I got upset. You have a wonderful sense of humour, even if you pretend to be all serious soldier most of the time. Truly a lovely sense of humour, and a lovely smile to match it…. You should smile more often, you know that?"

Becker stared at her, one eyebrow raised in his amusement at her rambling. "Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"You have a lovely smile too."

Jess stared at him in surprise and then her face lit up with the smile he'd been talking about. "So," she said, a bit awkwardly, "You're in then? I mean, you'll go see everything with me? Because I've made up this list and…"

"A list?" Becker interrupted her. "Really, Jess? A list? Like an itinerary?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's a_ vacation,_ Jess! Itineraries are for… appointments, meetings, places you have to be at a certain time. You're turning our trip into work."

"You do realise this is a work trip, right?"

Becker shrugged, "Sort of. Doesn't mean we have to treat it like one. What's Lester gonna do? Fire us if we don't bring home souvenir photos of the Eiffel Tower taken at 5:00am on our first day here?"

"Okay, you have a point. I just, I like to be organized. We'll consider my list a guideline. It's allowed to be changed. I can be flexible."

"Can I see this list?"

Jess nodded and fished it out of her pocket and Becker frowned as he looked at it. "Jess, I don't mind doing _most _of this stuff with you, but give me one day off, yeah?"

"What for? Becker you can relax in London. How often are we in France?"

"I didn't mean for that, Jess. I told you I was joking. I mean, one day for me to pick the activities. Whatever I want to do."

"Oh, umm… okay, yeah, I guess I could try to move some stuff around then… let's see…"

"Jess… you said the list _is _flexible, right?"

Jess laughed, "Yes, I promised, didn't I? We'll make it work. What day do you want?"

Becker shrugged, but stared at her list for a bit and then smiled, "Thursday. You have nothing planned that day except going to a French café for lunch and that will fit in on the weekend."

"Okay," Jess nodded and pulled out a pen to cross out her Thursday plans on the list. Then she hovered the pen over the empty day and looked at him, "Well…"

"Well, what?"

"Well what is your activity so I can write it in?"

"Oh, I'm not saying yet. You'll find out on Thursday."

_"Be-cker!"_ Jess called after him, but he was already walking away with a smirk on his face and she had to run to catch up.

* * *

><p>Becker had been following Jess around for half the morning while she excitedly pointed out ever little thing she saw and snapped photographs all around her. He was pretty sure that she'd have taken over a thousand photos by noon. It was mid-morning before he first noticed that half her photos were of himself. She'd begged him to pose for a few of them, but most she seemed to be trying to sneak and she wasn't doing a great job of it. He almost felt like he was being hounded by the paparazzi.<p>

"Hey, Jess," He said to her casually as he plopped himself down on a low stone wall to take a quick break from walking around, "Let's see your photos."

Jess immediately turned beat red and she clutched her camera a bit closer to herself, "Uh, I think viewing them right now would wear down the battery too much. I'll email them to you when I get on my laptop at the hotel, okay?"

Becker nodded, deciding to let her get away with it for the time being. Then he fished out his own camera and handed it to her. "Get some for me would you? I'm not much of a photographer."

Jess nodded, eager to do him a favour and began snapping more photos with _his_ camera while he watched her, enjoying her undying energy.

"Jessica," he called to her and she immediately returned to his side at the wall. "Jess, what about you? Do you want me to get some photos of you in front of the landmarks?"

Jess grinned, "Sure, yeah! That'd be great. Thanks, Becker."

Becker nodded and took her camera from her, snapping a few shots of her in front of the Eiffel tower. Then he held out his hand for his own camera, "I want some on my camera of you too."

Jess looked surprised that he'd want photos of her, but grinned happily and posed for him and then came to stand beside him to view them. She wanted to make sure she looked good in the photos that Becker was keeping.

Becker smiled when watched her scrutinize her image on the back of the camera critically. She was standing close to him again, so close that if he moved even a centimetre he could touch her. It was funny how comfortable it felt having her in his personal space like that. He couldn't quite resist tracing a quick line with his index finger from her shoulder to her elbow, half to get her attention, half just to touch her. Jess looked up at him and he grinned at her, "Stop critiquing your photos, Jessica. You're photogenic and they're lovely."

"You think so?" Jess asked, her face breaking into a beam.

"I do. Now, why don't we head back to the hotel and get a bite to eat and take a break. I'm tired and hungry."

"Me too," Jess agreed, "But I still have more sightseeing planned tonight. We can take one of those bus tours of the city!"

Becker rolled his eyes, but knew that he'd be talked into it sooner rather than later, so he might as well save face and not argue about it now.


	6. Mathematical Odds (Jess & Becker Part 2)

Becker lay in his bed with a smile on his face. They had spent two full days doing nothing but sightseeing, although on the second day Jess had arranged to have tours inside different landmarks and cathedrals and even in the Louvre, and Becker would have been bored out of his mind if it wasn't for the fact that he'd been so focused on the way Jess always seemed to magnetically gravitate to his side. Not that he wouldn't done the same with her, and he knew it, but he'd been purposely staying a few steps back from her to see what would happen and the next thing he knew she'd be millimetres away again. He rather liked that fact. The tech girls were probably right after all.

Because of the tour guides' incessant rambling on, admittedly it was their job, Becker hadn't gotten much chance to listen to Jess' rambling, which was far more entertaining he thought, but overall, he'd enjoyed himself.

It was now his turn to decide how to spend the day and he had a little surprise planned for Jess. He wanted to get an early start so they'd have a lot of time, but he couldn't help lying in bed just a little bit longer as he listened to her singing an upbeat song in the room next door and, judging by the thumps, he had a feeling that if he peaked inside he'd find her dancing around the room, probably with her hairbrush as a make-do microphone because that was just her personality. He grinned at the thought and rolled out of bed, heading down to the bathroom to shower and dress.

By the time he was finished, he found Jess in the living room downstairs, uploading her photos from the day before onto her laptop. Becker watched her for a moment before moving to join her on the couch. "Morning, Jessica."

Jess smiled at him and inched closer to him on the couch. "So," she said, "What are we going to do today?"

Becker grinned at her, "Something you'll love, I promise. It's totally a Jess thing to spend the day doing."

"I thought this was supposed to be a Becker day, not a Jess day."

Becker chuckled, "True, but you're gonna be with me, so that makes it a Becker Day."

Jess stared at him, speechless, but Becker saw her flustered blush and felt again the almost magnetic pull towards her. He reached for a strand of her hair and began to fiddle with it as he asked, "So, you _really_ wanna know what we're doing today?"

Jess nodded, still feeling a bit too overwhelmed by the way Becker was acting to trust her voice. Becker grinned at her._ "We,"_ he said, dropping her hair and standing up, motioning for her to follow him towards the door, "Are going to Disneyland."

Jess' voice came back in an excited squeal as she jumped up and threw her arms around him. "Thank-you, thank-you, _thank-you!"_

Becker grinned. "I knew you'd approve," he replied, returning her hug, "But just so you know, this is one of those things that never, _ever,_ gets told to any of my men."

Jess giggled, pulling away from him, giving him a fake pout, "So you're saying I _can't_ bring photos of you in Mickey ears, posing with Minnie Mouse to the ARC?"

Becker gave her a look of mock sternness. "I'm not worried about _that_, Jess, because you aren't _getting _those photos in the first place."

"Just one? For me? I won't show anyone."

"We'll see."

* * *

><p>If someone had told Jess a week ago, scratch that, <em>an hour ago<em>, that Becker would be taking her on a surprise trip to Paris Disneyland, she wouldn't have believed them. And yet, they were here, and he was currently standing close to her side in line for the Aerosmith Rock n' Roller Coaster. To be honest, she _still_ wasn't sure she believed it. It could possibly all be a dream after all.

The best part though wasn't the fact that he'd brought her here. It was the fact that he'd seemed to be enjoying her company as much as she did his. She'd never seen him so relaxed as he'd been the past few days and there'd been a couple moments where he'd even said things that had almost given her hope that he might fancy her, but she wasn't about to get her hopes up _that_ high yet.

It was actually the second time in a row on the ride, and it was Jess who had insisted on riding it again. She knew they still had a lot more to do and see, and she wanted to, but the ride had just been so much fun. It had nothing to do with the fact that, in her fun-filled fright the first time around she'd grabbed for Becker's hand and he'd immediately squeezed it and held on tightly for the duration of the ride. Okay, it had _everything_ to do with that if she was being honest, but certainly that was a small detail and completely beside the point.

She smiled to herself as they climbed back into the coaster car, sitting in the very back this time, which Jess found a bit more scary to be honest. To her surprise, Becker didn't wait for her to grab onto him, or even for the ride to start. He immediately reached for her hand and squeezed it tight, giving her a grin. "Ready?" He asked.

She nodded, "You betcha. And I don't think the ride would wait for me if I wasn't now, would it?"

Becker laughed, "Nope, so hold on!"

Jess wasn't sure if he meant to the bar in front of her, or to him, but she rather intended to have a tight grip on both anyway so it didn't really matter.

* * *

><p>Becker smiled to himself as he sat at a small metal table across from Jess eating a strawberry gelato from Fantasia Gelati. It was mid-afternoon and he'd been enjoying himself far more than he would ever have thought possible at a theme park that was run by overgrown mice. His main reason for bringing her here had been to watch an exuberant Jess run around all day with a smile on her face, while not having to listen to museum tour guides give lectures. However, he hadn't counted on the bonus of getting to hold her hand during every ride. The first time she'd grabbed onto him in a panic, but after that it'd just become habit. They'd get on a ride, and immediately one of them would reach for the other. Admittedly, there was nothing scary about rides like It's a Small World, but who was<em> he<em> to complain if Jess felt the automatic need to hold on tightly anyway. And it wasn't_ his_ fault if he sometimes forgot to let go after the ride, was it? It's wasn't as though she were protesting.

"You know," he said suddenly, as he watched her take a lick of her own chocolate gelato. "You're kind of dressed like Minnie Mouse."

Jess giggled, "Well, when I heard where you were taking me, I couldn't rightly resist." She was wearing a black tank top and a knee-length red skirt and even a pair of Minnie ears that she'd purchased an hour ago at one of the many souvenir shops. She had, however, opted to wear red and white sneakers instead of her normal high heels, because she didn't want to lose a shoe on a ride. She'd tried to talk Becker into getting the Mickey ears, but he'd outright refused. He had, however, finally agreed to get his photo taken with her and every character they'd come across, after informing her that they were for her private souvenir album only and meant to be kept to herself.

"Well, it's cute," Becker said with a smile, "You make an adorable Minnie."

"She always was my favourite character," Jess laughed.

Becker leaned a bit closer to her so that they wouldn't be overheard, and whispered, "As a kid, mine was always Pluto. I liked dogs."

Jess' eyes lit up at the confession. It wasn't often that Becker talked about himself, especially not about his childhood. "But what about now? Why don't you like Pluto anymore?"

Becker shrugged, "I guess I still do, I just… I'm starting to think I prefer Mickey."

Jess laughed, "So you've decided you like mice over dogs now?"

Becker chuckled. "It's not that… it's just that Minnie liked Mickey the best."

Jess blushed. Was he actually _flirting _with her, now? She opened her mouth to reply, which was probably a bad idea because she had no idea what she was about to say and it was such moments that usually brought out the worst of her rambling, but she was fortunately saved by making a fool of herself by a loud voice blaring over the speakers and announcing the start of the Disney Magic on Parade. She jumped to her feet excitedly, "Oh, _please _can we watch the parade?"

Becker shrugged and stood, following her to the edge of the street just in time to see the Fairy Godmother and Merlin arrive dancing on a float that looked like a giant book. Jess grabbed onto his arm, jumping with excitement and pointing beyond, "Look, the princesses are coming! Here, hold my ice cream so I can take pictures!"

She thrust her cone into his hands and fished out her camera. Becker missed most of the parade, watching Jess become completely giddy with excitement, but he did see enough to complain about the soldiers that were painted green and dancing.

"They're from Toy Story, not the ARC," Jess said, giving him a look of disbelief.

"It teaches kids that soldiers are just out to have a fun time. They should know that it's a dangerous job."

"You've gotta be joking."

Becker cracked a smile, "Maybe."

Jess gave him a playful shove and went back to taking her photographs.

* * *

><p>When the parade ended, they made their way over to the toilets and Becker stood on guard outside the ladies' room waiting for Jess.<p>

It took Jess a good twenty minutes due to the line up inside and when she got back out she found Becker looking annoyed and almost mad. She went over to him at once.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"Nothing," he said quickly and grabbed her wrist to pull her away. "Let's go ride the Pirates of the Caribbean, yeah?"

Jess nodded and followed him, but she wasn't about to give up that easily; she knew something had happened. She sidled up close to him once they were in line and whispered so that no one could hear her. "Becker, I know something's bothering you. What happened while I was in the restroom?"

Becker smiled at her, "Nothing, really. Just some stupid lady trying to flirt with me."

Jess' eyes opened wider, "_That's _what has you all riled up?"

"She was making me uncomfortable, Jess. She was quite pushy. She came up right beside me and when I asked if I could help her she said, "Oh, boy could you ever!" and gave me a wink."

Jess tried not to laugh. "Becker, surely you've had women hitting on you before. I mean, you're a good looking guy."

"I was standing outside the ladies' room in _Disneyland, _Jess. Did she really think I was single? I mean, do I _look _the type to come to Disney on my own? Surely I must be here with a girlfriend, or wife, or kids, or something."

"Becker, you _are _single, and you're not here with any of those things."

"That's not the point, Jess. She shouldn't have assumed it, even if she was right. Anyway, I just didn't like the way she was getting all close to me and standing in my personal space! She was almost as close to me as you are right now!"

He knew instantly he had made a mistake as Jess turned beat red and backed away from him.

"Jess… I didn't mean that."

Jess shrugged and faced forward in the line up, and Becker could see she was really upset.

"Jess, this wasn't about you. You're you. You're allowed. She's just a random stranger. I _like _having you close to me."

Jess finally turned to him, "You don't have to say that, Becker. It's fine. I just, was excited, is all, and it's crowded here, I didn't pay attention to where I was standing, I guess."

"_Jess-_ica_,_" Becker protested, "C'mere, back where you were."

Jess took a couple of tiny shuffled steps toward him again, but still stayed clear out of his personal space so Becker moved the couple steps between them and pulled her by her elbow back to him, whispering to her ear, "I said I want you near me, so stay put, why don't you? Otherwise I'm just going to have to hold you here as prisoner."

Jess didn't move away, but she still looked upset, like she didn't really believe him and the closeness between them felt far more awkward than comfortable like it had been before. Becker inwardly cursed his big mouth and wondered how to get past this with her.

Finally after a few moments, he wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her so that her back was resting against his chest. He kissed her ear and told her earnestly, "I _really, really, _like having _you _in my personal space, Jessica."

Jess rewarded him with another blush and a grin, this time relaxing. "Okay," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."

Becker nodded and let go of her, happy the tension had dropped and knowing that he didn't really have the right to hold her like that because she wasn't actually his. He did, however, keep close behind her and fiddle with her hair the entire time they were in line up and every once in awhile he gave her a little poke in the side, unable to completely keep his hands off her. Jess gave a little giggle and squirm each time. Becker thought he was in trouble once they got back to the ARC, but it didn't stop him from holding her hand again when they got into the ride.

* * *

><p>By the time it was dark out, Becker noticed that Jess had come down a bit from her excitement. In fact, she was looking a little bit sad. He frowned. "Jess? If you're not enjoying yourself anymore we can leave."<p>

Jess looked surprised, "I don't want to leave."

"You looked sad."

"I was a little, but just because I know it's going to end soon and it's been such a magical day. I don't want it to end sooner than it has to!"

"The Disney Dreams show starts in twenty minutes, should we go find a good spot to watch?"

Jess nodded, smiling again. "Yes, I'd really like that, but then I suppose we'll have to leave."

"Well, the park _does _close after that, Jessica. I don't think they'll let us stay."

She sighed and Becker gave her hand a little squeeze. He hadn't even noticed this time that he was still holding it after the last ride, and he wasn't sure it was a good thing that it was becoming so natural. "Jessica, what if I promise we'll come back here again?"

Jess looked at him, "When? What for?"

Becker shrugged, "Just for fun, of course. Maybe next year, or whenever we can get some holiday time next, I'll bring you here and we'll have even more time because we can spend the extra day at the parks instead of going to some Taser gun show."

Jess beamed, "_Really?_"

"Sure, why not?"

"Maybe," Jess hesitated and then continued, "Maybe we could come back for New Year's? I always wanted to see the Christmas decorations."

Becker nodded, "Okay, New Year's it is. We'll go see our show now, and make an appointment for another viewing six months from now."

Jess pulled her hand free from his in order to fling her arms around his neck excitedly.

* * *

><p>The show was better than Becker would have expected. The special effects were amazing and watching the images on the castle and in the sky instead of on a screen just made it seem even more magical. Plus, he always had enjoyed fireworks. They were seated on the street curb watching it, and it wasn't the most comfortable place to sit, but the show itself and made him forget about the hardness of the cement for the time being. That and the fact that a few minutes into it, Jess had hesitantly cuddled herself into his side with an excuse about being too tired to sit straight on her own. Becker had immediately put his arm around her and drawn her closer to him.<p>

The show lasted just over twenty minutes and when it was over they followed the crowd out of the park. Jess grinned up at him as they walked side-by-side. "Did you enjoy the show?"

Becker nodded, "I did, actually. I was surprised to see the Mary Poppins segment though."

"Why?"

Becker shrugged, "I didn't know she was Disney."

"Really? I've always known that."

Becker burst out laughing, "This may come as a shock, Jessica, but I'm not really all that knowledgeable about all things Disney."

Jess shoved him playfully, "So you're saying you _don't _go home and watch Disney movies every week night and take Disney trivia quizzes online?"

Becker shook his head, "Well, no, but I have to admit, I do love them Pirates."

"Figures."

"You don't like them?"

"Sure I do, but I prefer the animated movies. Disney really does a great job with them."

"What's your favourite one?" Becker asked her, surprised that he cared.

Jess thought about it for a moment and then shrugged, "Maybe Bambi or Beauty and the Beast."

"What's the next one going to be?"

"The next Disney movie?"

Becker nodded and Jess shrugged. "I don't know. I like their films, but I'm not obsessed. I'll know when they start advertising."

"I wonder if it'll be more animated type, or CGI, or actors like Pirates."

"I don't know," Jess laughed, "Possibly it'll be a sequel to something though. They seem to be obsessed with sequels right now."

"They're never as good."

"No, I agree, they're not."

"Well," Becker said casually, "I guess the only way to tell if the next Disney movie is any good will be to go see it. We'll have to do that I think, whatever type it is."

"Yeah," Jess agreed, just as casually, but inside she was dancing for joy because she was pretty sure that Becker had just invited her to go to a movie with him.

* * *

><p>They exited the park gate and Jess looked back a bit wistfully. Becker noticed and stopped walking. "It was a good day, eh?"<p>

Jess nodded, "Yeah, but its over."

"We're still in Paris though, Jess. We've got your list of things to see and do that you're looking forward to and we'll come back to Disney in six months."

Jess looked at him, "You haven't changed your mind on that yet then?"

"Jessica! I'm a man of my word; you should know that."

"You better be, because as soon as we get back to the hotel I'm gonna be online booking our flights." Jess laughed. "Gotta figure out what day we're leaving so I can commence my countdown."

Becker rolled his eyes and started walking again. They were halfway back to the hotel when he realised that the major downside of the day was the fact that the theme song from It's a Small World was now stuck in his head.

* * *

><p>Becker woke up the next morning with an uneasy feeling in his stomach. As a soldier, he always liked to be prepared. He knew that anything could happen at any time, and that was just part of life, especially life at the ARC, and that while you couldn't prepare yourself for what the situation would be, you could prepare yourself for how you were going to behave, act, and react to what was going on, no matter what it was.<p>

So when he woke up having no idea how he himself was expected to behave or even how he _wanted_ to behave, he felt almost sick. And of course, it was all to do with Jess. She threw him off sometimes. They'd be going to the gun show today. The day before had been, using Jess' own words, magical. He'd spent most of the day holding her hand, and he'd loved it. He'd cuddled up to her during the show, they'd hugged, they'd made a movie date and even booked a vacation together over New Years.

But that'd been Disneyland and everything they'd done had had an excuse involved. He'd held her hand because she'd been scared on the rides and then he'd just pretended to forget. They'd cuddled because she'd been tired. The other stuff, well, they'd just been on the subject and enjoying themselves, so why not make some plans together?

Becker was scared now that the magic of Disney had been left behind in Disney. There would be absolutely no excuse he could make up to walk around holding her hand in a gun show, not even a stupid taser gun show. Was it going to be awkward if he decided to hold her hand for no reason other than he wanted to? Would she pull away? Would it be awkward if he_ didn't_ after yesterday? After all, he'd flat out insisted to her that he wanted her to be in his personal space and that had had nothing to do with the rides. If he didn't keep her there today, she'd assume that it was a Disney thing only and possibly avoid being near him too.

He sighed; Maybe if he was really lucky Jess would take the initiative to hold his hand.

* * *

><p>Jess was still asleep when Becker got up and ready for the day. He flipped on the television for a bit and watched the local weather before turning it back off when he heard her upstairs using the shower. When she came back down she was wearing a cute pea green dress that looked great with her complexion.<p>

"You look nice," he commented to her casually, sliding a croissant across the kitchen counter toward her and sitting down for breakfast himself.

"Thanks!" Jess told him with a grin, spinning around and then plonking herself down in the chair across from him. "Connor picked this outfit out for me."

Becker coughed and lifted an eyebrow, clearly amused. "Connor picks out your clothes?"

Jess shrugged, not seeming to find anything odd about it at all. "Well, not normally, but if I ask for an opinion he helps, and this one he found on his own and said I should bring it because he thought it'd suit me well."

"And you_ listened_ to him?"

Jess frowned, "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I? You said yourself you liked it."

"I did, and he did good. I guess, I'd have been worried he was wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Okay, let's just say that if Connor told me an outfit looked nice I'd be running to go change as fast as possible. I'm glad you have more confidence in his fashion sense than I do, because you look fantastic."

"Connor's actually quite smart you know. He usually knows what he's talking about on any subject."

"Jess, if I show you something, will you keep it an absolute secret?"

Jess nodded, eager to share in one of Becker's secrets. Becker got up from the table and retrieved his wallet from the coat that was draped over the back of the sofa.

"Okay," Becker said, "I just don't want it getting out that I have a sentimental side, you know. My soldiers quite like me the way I am, _but _I do happen to have a photograph in my wallet of the old team. I mean, not the really old team, but it's of myself, Connor, Abby, Danny and Sarah. I want you to take a close look at it, specifically at Connor." He handed her the photograph with a flourish and said, "_This, _is how Connor Temple used to dress."

Jess took the photo eagerly and burst out laughing when she saw Connor in bright yellow tight jeans, a turquoise t-shirt, a pinstripe vest, red bandana tied around his neck, some fingerless gloves and a fedora. "That's _crazy!" _she giggled. "I can't believe he wore that! Please tell me it was a costume party."

Becker shook his head. "I wish I could. He dressed like that all the time. I know his style has somewhat matured now, but first impressions mean a lot sometimes and I'm always going to picture Connor like that. So you can see why I'd be a bit hesitant to take any fashion advice from the guy."

Jess nodded, "Yes, I guess I'd have been concerned too. And oh gosh, what on earth is_ Abby_ wearing?"

Becker peered over her shoulder scrutinizingly, even though he'd seen the photo many times before, and answered her seriously, "It appears to be camouflage leggins, a grey t-shirt that looks like she pulled it out of the dumpster judging from the holes and stains and the fact that it's three sizes too big, brown work boots, and a multi-coloured plaid skirt."

Jess stared in disbelief and then finally ask, "Maybe Abby had asked pre-mature Connor for fashion advice?"

Becker laughed, "Well, you never know, do you?"

"And what'd she do to her hair?"

Becker shrugged, "Cut it, I guess."

"With a chain saw? Because when I get a hair cut it doesn't look like that…"

Becker frowned suddenly, "Jess…"

"Yeah?"

"I shouldn't have showed this to you, should I have? You're gonna have a _really _hard time not telling them you've seen it."

Jess groaned. "Right, I _can't _tease them on it without giving away your secret. Becker, you're mean, you know that? Do you not have _any _idea how hard this is going to be for me to not say something?"

"Yep," Becker grinned at her, "You'd better just forget you ever saw it."

"You're joking, right? I'm gonna be having nightmares about those outfits for months!"

"Fine, just don't talk in your sleep."

Jess playfully shoved him and then stood up. "C'mon. We'll be late for your gun show if we don't leave."

Becker nodded, and followed her out the door. As they walked down the street he thought about how relaxed he'd been with her all morning and started to reach to take her hand in his before changing his mind. Thank goodness the soldiers he commanded didn't know he was such a wimp.

* * *

><p>"None of this stuff is any good," Becker said, barely glancing over the displays. "The EMD's we have are the best out there."<p>

"That's one of those things I should never repeat to anyone, right?"

"Especially not to Matt," Becker grinned at her.

Jess grinned back. It was his simple little comments that she knew he'd never make to anyone else that made her feel so special.

"Still," she said to him, "We'd best look around. Lester's given me permission to order anything that might be better than the EMD's, you know."

"There won't be."

"Becker, do you remember on the way here I told you I had a secret about this gun show. Something I'd researched online?"

The memory suddenly triggered, Becker looked at her intrigued, "Go on."

"I think there's one you might be interested in," she said confidently. "Follow me."

Becker did so, walking past a couple rooms of gun displays and a theatre where someone was talking to any audience willing to listen about the different features of all the guns. Apparently he was scheduled to repeat himself every half hour all day. Jess seemed to be on a mission though as she turned the corner and led him right to a room with a line up of people and Becker wondered where they'd all been before.

"What's going on, Jess?"

"Everyone is really interested in the same thing, that's all."

The line up went quickly and the stepped through the doors into a gymnasium. And there on the stage, all shiny and new was sitting the star attraction of the gun show. Becker's eyes lit up and a grin spread across his face. "Really? Jess! It's a tank! A taser tank! I didn't know there was a such thing!"

"Brand new invention."

Becker had transformed into the image of a little boy in a toy store and he grabbed Jess' hand, dragging her over to it. It was only when he reached it and dropped her hand that he realised what he had done and scolded himself for letting go of her when he'd had his opportunity. Still, too late to grab her hand again now, that'd be weird and he was too excited about the tank to really let it bother him just at the moment.

"Jess, will Lester let me have this?"

Jess shrugged, "He told me I could order whatever you thought would be good. I don't think he necessarily _knew _the tank would be here…"

"So you'll get it for me?"

"Of course."

"Jess, I am _soooo _glad you're not scared of your boss."

"It's not like he can fire me," Jess grinned.

* * *

><p>Becker knew he should be embarrassed about the way he was acting, because soldiers definitely did <em>not <em>sing silly little made up songs while they worked, especially not in front of other people, but it was Jess and he felt comfortable enough around her that he didn't care. And that really said something, didn't it?

"_I've got a taaannk! A taser tank! I've got a ta-ank! A taser, taser tank!" _He continued to sing as he chopped up some vegetables in the suite's kitchen.

Jess giggled and happily joined in, "_He's got a ta-ank! A taser, taser tank!"_

Becker put down the knife he was using and grabbed at Jess' hand to spin her around in a quick dance as he sung his chorus again. When he let her go, Jess beamed at him. "When you become famous, can I be your backup singer?"

Becker smiled at her, but his tone became threatening and teasing combined, "This song so much as leaves this _room_ and I'm demoting you."

"Demoting me from what?" Jess asked with a chuckle. "Field Co-ordinator or Co-Singer?" She stuck her tongue out at him.

Becker thought for a moment and then smiled, "You tell people my secrets and I'm demoting you from your highly coveted position as Becker's Best Friend. I swear there's a line up of others wanting the job, I'm just that popular."

Jess stared at him in surprise, "Really?"

Becker knew what she was asking, but he couldn't resist teasing her a bit more, "Yes, really, I've been taking CV's by the dozen. Everyone wants to be best friends with the owner of the Taser Tank. _The taser, taser tank!"_

Jess laughed at his antics and swatted him with a dish towel, "You know what I meant, Becker! Am I really your best friend?"

Becker grinned at her, "Of course, Jess. Who else would be? Anyway, you don't really think I'd let you hear my beautiful singing voice if you weren't?"

"Oh, I just thought that was my reward for buying you tank," Jess replied, and felt rather proud of herself for not squealing with excitement and causing him to_ actually_ demote her right then and there.

* * *

><p>For a second morning in a row, Becker woke up feeling unsure of himself. This time it was worse, because he'd been a coward the day before. They were going on a long walk today in a place that Jess called Montmartre et Sacre Coeur. She had assured him that it would be an adorable little village with lots of café's and street artists and all things French and Becker knew that if he didn't resume his hand holding with her now, the Disney magic touch would definitely be too far gone to pick back up again. If it wasn't already.<p>

They took a cab to the village in north Paris. They were mostly silent on the ride, but it was a comfortable silence. Jess was staring excitedly out the window of the car and Becker was studying her. She looked young and beautiful in the flirty light orange dress she was wearing. He studied a bit closer and then suddenly spoke in surprise, "Jess! Your dress changed colours! That's the one you wore yesterday."

Jess turned back to him and giggled, "You're too observant. I shouldn't tell you this, but I have fourteen of this dress. Abby and Connor think I'm crazy, but I liked every colour the store had. I had fifteen, but I gave one to Abby."

Becker laughed, "How many did you bring?"

"Just the two. Connor said they were the best colours for my complexion."

"Too bad. I like it. I want to see the other colours."

Jess smiled, "Well, maybe I'll wear the others when we get back home. Not all at once of course, that'd just be weird."

"What colours do you have?" Becker wondered out loud and began picturing her in each one as she listed them until the cab finally stopped.

* * *

><p>When they got out, Becker made up his mind. The place was just <em>sooo<em> romantic that it'd be wrong to _not_ hold hands with her. Not when they were walking so close to one another and partially flirting. Besides, if it was going to be awkward either way, he might as well go with the choice he liked best, right?

He glanced around the white stone village and saw a street vendor on the side of the road that he knew they'd have to visit, because that's all he really needed, an excuse. He grabbed her hand in his and tugged on it, pulling her with him and pretending that he'd done it just to get her to follow. "C'mon, Jess! This way."

The lady was selling paintings that were too expensive to consider buying, but beautiful to look at and Jess and Becker stood back and watched as she worked on a new one for a few minutes.

"I wish I could paint like that," Jess commented.

Becker shrugged, "Funny, because I'm actually quite good at it, I just can't be bothered."

Jess looked at him, "Really? You should paint something for me then."

"Like what?" Becker asked her, leading her away and up the street.

Jess couldn't think straight though to answer because Becker was still holding her hand. She wasn't sure that he was aware he hadn't let go of her, but she was walking hand-in-hand with her soldier in a quaint Parisian village and it was almost too good to be true.

"Jess?" Becker pressed again, "What do you want a painting of?"

Jess focused and then smiled at him, "Something colourful and cheerful that'd go good in my flat. Maybe with butterflies."

"Right," Becker said, making a mental memo to himself to paint her a butterfly garden when they got back.

"Are you really going to do it?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I? It probably won't be as good as that lady's were, but I'll do my best."

"Yay!" Jess grinned at him.

Becker smiled as they turned the corner and he noticed another street vendor, this one selling roses. He pulled her toward it immediately.

"I need a rose for my pretty friend here," he told the man at the flower stand. Jess' jaw dropped in amazement as Becker let go of her hand and reached for his wallet.

"Becker, thank-you!" Jess breathed, hugging him tightly. When the red flower was safely in her hands, Jess lifted it to her nose to smell it and Becker realised his mistake. He'd let go of her and there were no more street vendors on this part of the street, so now if he wanted to hold her hand, it was going to have to be a purposeful and obvious gesture.

He took a deep breath and then shrugged to himself, reaching out and entwining their fingers together. Jess stared at him and he gave her a smile, "Ready to go on?"

She nodded, mutely, and he purposefully ignored the way she was biting her lip to hold back her grin because looking at her mouth for too long would be a huge mistake on his part and he was smart enough to know it.

* * *

><p>Once again, Jessica was squealing with glee inside and completely unsure how she was containing it. They walked around for a bit until they found a café where Becker wanted to have lunch. They sat down across from each other and Jess laid her rose across the table and listened while Becker asked for a menu and two glasses of white wine.<p>

"This place is _so_ perfect," Jess said when the waiter had gone. Becker nodded his agreement and they both fell silent, their eyes studying the rose on the table intently to avoid looking at each other.

And then suddenly Becker's trip secret dawned on Jess. She didn't know why she hadn't caught on before, but she supposed she'd been distracted by the actual trip itself. But it made sense, it did. She remembered reading it in Becker's file, and she'd seen the way he'd listened to the flight attendant and spoken to the man at the flower shop and now the waiter. "You don't need me!" she blurted out.

Becker stared at her, startled, and wondering what on earth she was talking about. Jess blushed, realising what she'd said, but she continued on in her accusatory fashion. "You don't need me _here_ I mean, not that you don't need me at all, which you probably don't, well maybe in a work related fashion since I am the best field co-ordinator around, but Lester shouldn't have sent me to translate for you… _You're fluent _in_ French!"_

Becker looked at her, a bit guiltily and more than a little sheepishly. "C'est vrai. But I couldn't exactly tell Lester that could I? He'd already booked you in for the trip. Besides, it would have been dull without you, I probably really would have just chilled in the hotel room all along and I really,_ really,_ wanted you along for the trip."

Jess grinned, "Why didn't you tell _me_ then?"

"I didn't want you to feel bad for taking advantage of Lester's pocketbook."

Jess laughed, "Can't be helped, like you said, he'd already booked it before he told us."

"And it's not _our _fault he didn't bother to ask if I needed a translator," Becker justified.

"Just like it's not our fault he didn't make sure there wouldn't be any tanks at the gun show."

"Exactly."

Jess smiled, "Well I suppose I should call him up and tattle on you, but since we are best friends and all, I guess I'll let it slide. You're just lucky he sent me instead of Abby. She speaks French to, you know, and she might have told on you."

"Screw that, Abby and Connor already got their trip!"

Jess looked surprised, "What trip?"

Becker laughed, "Well, it wasn't a real trip, I guess. A couple years ago Becker sent Abby and Connor to some Lord of the Rings convention and Sarah and Danny to a dance."

"What's that have to do with dinosaurs?"

"Nothing," Becker laughed. "It wasn't like this actually, it wasn't work related at all, but he tried to make it sound like it was. I know ours is a business trip so it's not the same thing, but either way, they did still get to go on a trip that they enjoyed."

"Why would Lester buy them non-work related trips though?"

"He was trying to set them up because he was tired of them flirting with each other and not working up the courage to ask each other out. Danny figured it out and got him to admit it. I'm not sure that Abby and Connor ever knew that, though I daresay they guessed at times. He sent them away and made them attend something that was so very vaguely work related as an excuse and then put them up in these fancy hotels together where they'd be able to have a weekend doing whatever they wanted in a romantic setting. He went all out, paying for luxury rooms, meals…"

He stopped suddenly, his eyes widening and stared at Jess as he realised what he was saying and just how similar the situation sounded to the one they were both in now.

"He-he wouldn't do that to us though, right?" Jess asked.

"No! Of course not!" Becker replied quickly. "Guns are important in our business. Much more so than Tolkien and Dances are. Besides, you and I would never fall for something like that."

"Right," Jess nodded a bit too enthusiastically. "Good thing too, because he'd be rather disappointed when we came back and we weren't a couple."

Becker hesitated and then shrugged, "I'm not really bothered about disappointing Lester to be honest. I'd be more concerned if I thought he _was _trying to set us up, because then if we did come back as a couple, we'd owe him big time. I don't think I want to owe Lester."

Jess stared, "But, is there a chance of that? Us going home as a couple, I mean?"

"I'm a soldier, Jess, I've learned to never say never. Of course there's always a chance. If I said there wasn't and it happened then I'd look stupid, like I did when I said dinosaurs didn't roam England. Never say never, that's the motto. Better to say you don't know than to be wrong."

He was looking out across the street at the view of the village from the top of the hill they were on, avoiding looking at her, but knowing she was staring at him.

"Right," she said finally, "So, umm… what would you say the odds were?"

"Odds?" he turned to her a bit puzzled.

"Of us leaving here as a couple? I'm just curious. What percent chance is there?"

Becker stared at her, "Is this like a math question? Because I never did like math."

"Just a guesstimate," Jess said, not sure why she was pushing it because she was barely handling her glee as it was that Becker wasn't outright opposed to the idea. "One percent? Two? Ten? Fifty?"

Becker heard the hopeful tone that she was trying to hide as her number got higher and he breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that it was so obvious she wanted it to happen as much as he did.

He looked her in the eyes purposefully, "One hundred," he said firmly. "One hundred percent chance we're a couple before this trip is over." Then he swallowed nervously while he watched for her reaction.

Jess did squeal then, she couldn't help it. She jumped from the table and raced around it to throw her arms around his neck. Becker chuckled and pulled her down so she was sitting sideways in his lap. He brushed some hair from her face and grinned, "So, you like those odds then?"

"Definitely," Jess laughed, "Very, very, _very_ good odds."

"And I'm starting to think I like math after all," Becker grinned at her. "Answering math questions properly provides brilliant results for me."

Jess nodded and looked at him eagerly, "Yes, you're very good at math, but it's not time for that. You should be kissing me now, right?"

"Right," Becker agreed, doing just that.

The kiss was gentle and pretty much perfect, Jess decided as she nearly purred in her contentment. Becker definitely understood that Paris was all about romance. She pulled away just enough to speak, letting her lips brush against his as she did. "You're good at geography too."

"What?" Becker blinked, not understanding her train of thought or even how she was thinking because the only thing going through his mind was how good she tasted.

"Geography. We're in Paris, so you're being romantic."

Becker raised his eyebrow, amused. "We're also in France, so maybe it should have been a French Kiss?"

Jess blushed but nodded eager for him to try it. When they finally pulled away the second time they found that the waiter had left their menus and wine on the table without them noticing.

"I guess we owe him a big tip," Becker chuckled as Jess returned to her own seat across from him.

Jess nodded in agreement, too happy to really care. She glanced at her rose on the table and then suddenly pulled out a piece of paper from her purse and started to jot something down.

Becker watched curiously for a moment before asking her what she was writing.

She grinned back at him cheekily, "Itinerary for our New Years trip, because we are _sooooo _coming here again too."

Becker chuckled and didn't argue, didn't want to argue, as he watched her. Suddenly he thought of something.

"Jess…"

"Yep?"

"What you said a few minutes ago, before you accused me of knowing French… I just wanted to say that you were wrong."

She looked up from her paper, trying to figure out what he meant, "Wrong about what? Are you sure? I'm very rarely wrong."

Becker laughed, "That's true, because you're brilliant, but you were wrong this time. You said I didn't need you, and I do, Jess. I really, really do."


End file.
